F1 tech expert explains why Aston Martin has ‘lost itself’ this season

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There has been a stark difference between Aston Martin’s 2023 and 2024 F1 seasons after their car development appeared to stall in the last few races.

At the same time last year, Aston Martin was third in the Constructors’ Championship with 196 points and finished just 22 points behind McLaren at the end of the season.

This year, they are on just 73 points in fifth place and face a real threat from Visa Cashapp RB in the second half of the season.

Pressure is on the design team led by technical director Dan Fallows to deliver results on track from billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll, after Fernando Alonso voiced his frustrations with their lack of progress on track.

Discussing their form on The Race F1 Tech Show podcast, former F1 car designer Gary Anderson believes the team has ‘lost itself’ in developing its AMR24.

Gary Anderson believes Aston Martin has ‘lost itself’ developing AMR24

Team principal Mike Krack has denied that Aston Martin is lost after fitting their latest upgrade package, but the results on track tell a different story.

Stroll is currently investing millions of pounds into the team and will want to see some form of return, having also enabled Aston Martin to build a new state-of-the-art factory on their Silverstone site.

But even with all these facilities, Anderson believes there is a fundamental problem with their approach to designing the AMR24.

“Aston Martin has lost itself in the last year and a half. They started 2023 strongly and it fell away in the second half of the year, and they have never really returned from as strong as they were in 2023.

“It’s alright having a good car as they did at the beginning of 2023, but you need to know why you have a good car.

“They have been blindly developing the car and changing lots and lots of bits, but we have not seen them at the same performance they had at the beginning of 2023. I haven’t seen them regroup when they went astray, they’ve got closer but not as close to winning races as they did that year.”

Will things change when Adrian Newey arrives at Aston Martin?

Things might be bad for Aston Martin on track at the minute, but that could all change with the arrival of Adrian Newey.

The legendary F1 car designer has been tipped to join the Silverstone-based outfit when his contract with Red Bull officially ends in February 2025, with an announcement on Newey joining set for as early as September.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage

It would be a massive coup for Aston Martin given their current position, while it would potentially put Alonso in a position to challenge for his third World Championship if Newey can produce a title challenger for 2026.

The team has also been on a massive recruitment drive, with former Mercedes High-Performance Powertrains boss Andy Cowell recently joining alongside veteran F1 designer Bob Bell.

With the addition of Newey, it all looks set for them to realise the dream of Stroll to turn his team into a championship-winning entity after taking over in 2018.