F1 News: Aston Martin To Bring Upgrades To Save This Year After Huge Mistake

This would be the last upgrade for the AMR23 this season.

2023 started on a great note for Aston Martin which debuted its F1 powerhouse- the AMR23. The car shockingly turned out to be the second-fastest behind Red Bull in Bahrain this year, after Fernando Alonso scored a podium. However, after the Canadian GP, things went downhill gradually. Now though, Aston Martin has got its last opportunity to make the car great again before the 2023 season concludes in a few months. 

Reports suggested that the team's strong winter development, heading into pre-season, packed enough punch in the F1 car to make it way faster than last year. Alonso's 2023 qualifying time was over two seconds faster than his qualifying time in 2022.

But, after securing six podiums in eight races, the direction Aston Martin was heading in started to veer a little, just as the team thought that it had a great edge over Mercedes and Ferrari.

However, the team was unable to aero through the challenges that propped up after the Canadian Grand Prix. A new floor was introduced as a part of a huge upgrade in Montreal where Alonso scored yet another podium in P2, thus hinting that the upgrades worked well. 

Unfortunately, the Canadian GP victory had a smokescreen effect as subsequent rounds saw the AMR23 lose quite a lot of its top speed. Not only that, it lost superiority in low-speed corners. The car that was once easier to set up at the beginning of the season, had now become a problem child.

On the other hand, McLaren was successful in getting their car to speed after Austria but Aston Martin continued to drop pace. The corrective update in Belgium and Zandvoort suggested that it might have got the AMR23 back on track but, a disappointing run in Singapore and Japan highlighted a different story. 

It was clear that Aston Martin was way behind Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren. In fact, the team was way behind itself because Alonso's Q3 time was slower than Sebastian Vettel's time from last year. 

The Road Ahead

With six Grand Prix remaining, team principal Mike Krack ensured that upgrades would arrive by the final race in Abu Dhabi. If they turn out to be anything less than a miracle, chances are that the issues on the AMR23 could be carried forward to next year thus, making it an uphill task for technical director Dan Fallows to reverse the car's problems.

However, for the team to follow a certain path for 2024, the changes it brings to the car in the next few weeks matter the most as they will play a key role in directing the winter workflow after the 2023 season concludes. 

The worst-case scenario for Aston Martin would be a failure in problem diagnosis. Because if they're unable to do that, it would cause them to lose confidence in the simulator and other development tools in winter.