Aston Martin chief fires Red Bull ‘infinite’ warning as ‘focus on’ ending Max Verstappen dominance

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Aston Martin chief Dan Fallows has warned Red Bull that the Silverstone squad will ‘focus on’ ending Max Verstappen’s dominance of Formula 1 in the 2024 campaign.

Last year was a Red Bull whitewash as the Milton Keynes outfit won 21 of the 22 Grand Prix, plus five of the six Sprint events. Verstappen even won 19 Grand Prix and four Sprint events in 2023 en route to a third straight title and a record points tally of 575 from a potential 620.

Only Carlos Sainz won a Grand Prix in anything but a Red Bull last year with the Ferrari star’s Singapore GP win. McLaren ace Oscar Piastri also denied Red Bull a perfect Sprint record by winning it at the Qatar GP as a rookie. Sergio Perez only won one Sprint and two Grand Prix.

Aston Martin will ‘focus on’ ending Red Bull’s F1 dominance in 2024

Aston Martin looked likely to be amongst Red Bull’s main rivals after Fernando Alonso joined to replace Sebastian Vettel. The 42-year-old sealed six podiums during the first eight Grand Prix. But his Silverstone team would struggle to keep up in the development race thereafter.

Alonso only enjoyed two further podiums through 14 Grand Prix and teammate Lance Stroll failed to claim any. Aston Martin’s regression during the middle of the season let Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren pass them as Red Bull’s top rivals to end the year as the fifth-best team.

Dan Fallows thinks the AMR24 offers ‘infinite possibilities’ to develop

Despite falling to fifth with 580 fewer points than Red Bull in 2024, Aston Martin’s technical director Fallows – who quit Milton Keynes for Silverstone in 2022 – says his team will ‘focus on’ ending the dominance Verstappen’s crew enjoyed last year when the new season starts.

Fallows also believes Aston Martin have a great platform with the AMR24 to avoid the same regression that the team endured in the development race last year. Aston Martin have not carried over many parts from the AMR23 which secured Alonso P4 in the drivers’ standings.

“I would say that the AMR24 is a great evolution of last year’s car and looks quite different, with many new parts that provide us with a solid development platform,” he said, via Marca.

“The chassis design is new, as is the nose, front wing, the front suspension and the rear suspension. We want to compete in the development race this season and this car is designed for it… We focus on them. There are infinite possibilities for improvement.”