Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin will certainly be among the most watched teams on the track this weekend. Ferrari is clearly the team that is attracting the most attention, and creating expectations, for the introduction of the first real update package on the SF-24, but the Silverstone team will also have its important updates. In fact, Dan Fallows’ technical group will continue, also in the first European stage of the F1 world championship, the update program of its AMR24, which will follow the one introduced especially in Suzuka, to try to get closer to the three leading teams. “We are bringing an upgrade to Imola as part of our ongoing development programme. This should address several areas of improvement that we have identified, but it’s all relative – no one stands still in F1 – and our competitors will also be bringing new parts.” Mike Krack, TP of the Silverstone team, announced at the start of the seventh weekend of the season – “All we can do is focus on ourselves and continue to close the gap with the leaders. Everyone on the team is pushing hard and this weekend’s update is just another example of everyone’s tireless effort and dedication.”.
A completely new front wing makes its debut at Imola
In Japan, Aston Martin had introduced a package of updates that affected the bottom and the bellies, however, as anticipated yesterday, the innovations from Imola will also concern the front part of the AMR24, with the new wing and the new nose which were immediately shown by the English team in the Pit Lane of Imola. While in Australia some changes had already been introduced to the front wing, especially in the flap area, one was introduced in Imola completely new specification, different in practically all areas: from the endplates, to the mainplane, up to the flaps. The final shape of the nose also changes slightly, still positioned on the second element of the wing, which now has two small openings with a new support in the center of them. The design of the main plane, however, changes a lot and you can see a central spoon that is much more accentuated than the previous specification, with a more ‘V’ shape.
In addition to this, the technicians of the English team also modified the design of the flaps, introducing a particular solution in the upper element, in the area where the flap adjustment device is located. There solution is innovative and resembles a seagull in flight thanks to its ‘V’ profile. The external bulkhead has also been modified, no longer presenting a curved exit profile, but has now become straight.
Alonso: “We are trying to add performance in every race”
There is always a strong curiosity about how much an update, according to the team, could be worth in chronometric terms, even before it has made its debut on the track. “How much should the new pieces bring? Much less than what was published in the Spanish media, but I think it will be a good step” – Fernando Alonso made it known while answering questions from some media, including Formu1a.uno – “But we made a good step forward in Bahrain, then in Jeddah, in Australia and in Japan, and also in Miami. At every race we brought new parts and in Imola it’s not that different. We’ll see tomorrow if it will give us more lap time than the other updates.” The two-time world champion clearly highlighted how the fact that we will return to racing with the normal weekend format in Imola could allow the team to further optimize the new package and setup, announcing new updates in Monte Carlo, in Canada and Barcelona.
In this first part of the season, the AMR24 showed better performance in qualifying compared to Sunday, however, according to Alonso, the updates that will debut on the track tomorrow are not specific to solving the race pace problem. “At the moment what we are bringing is more focused on adding performance to the machinei.e. more load, less resistance to progress and therefore simply a better lap time” – Alonso made it known – “Every time we’ve brought something to the track, it’s appeared to be wind tunnel related and that added performance to the car, which is good. But this is a relative game. If you bring half a tenth and the whole grid brings two tenths to the track, you are a tenth and a half worse off than them.” However, the Spanish driver is very confident about the work that the technical department is carrying out at Silverstone. “Our car is better than last year, as is our progress but the results are not because the top four teams are doing an incredible job. But I have full faith in the team because I see that we are going in the right direction“.
