The start of the 2024 F1 season is not what Lawrence Stroll had hoped for, with his Aston Martin (44 points) only fifth in the Constructors’ Championship after eight races, even closer to the sixth position of Racing Bulls (24 points) than to the fourth of Mercedes (96 points). This year nothing is going right for the English team, while the start of last season was at least very positive, only to lose that important war on developments during the season.
The Imola package was supposed to guarantee an important step forward but the AMR24 became undriveable on the track
The AMR24 is an aerodynamically designed car with very aggressive solutions, clearly inspired by Red Bull but with its own interpretations, which however never gave the desired results. From the package introduced in Imola, the technical office expected important steps forward, since in the tunnel the numbers were really very important, however, as also happened during the past season, not even half of the expected profit was seen on the track. The verdona has become one very nervous car, at times undriveable and with a much smaller operating window than expected, when in reality it should have been the opposite.
In the meantime, the leading teams have almost all positively updated their cars; Mclaren and Ferrari first and foremost but also Mercedes, which has made steps forward especially in terms of understanding. Even Racing Bulls has made good progress on its VCARB-01, with the bottom introduced in Miami which was worth 2 tenths of a second, and it is therefore not surprising that the car from the Faenza team has thus become a serious rival of the AMR24 in the very last races while the top four teams moved away. From here the important dissatisfaction on the part of Lawrence Stroll after the negative weekend in Imola, from which a lot was expected, which led to an important and tough meeting with Krack (Team Principal) and Fallows (Technical Director).
Aston Martin has made an offer to Cardile (DT Ferrari) and continues to talk to Newey
It’s undeniable that the greatest pressure is on Dan Fallowstechnical director of the Silverstone team since 2021, after having worked at Red Bull for 15 years, because the involution of the Verdona compared to the beginning of 2023 is tangible and now worrying. Hence the offer that recently arrived to Enrico Cardilecurrent Ferrari DT, as anticipated by Motorsport IT and confirmed at Formula One from two high-level sources. An offer not rejected a priori by the engineer from Arezzo, who last week received an aggressive approach from the English competitor. Only a year ago the roles were reversed, praise for Silverstone and much criticism of Maranello’s technical department. This shows that sentiment towards leading engineers in F1 can change rapidly.
The work carried out by the Italian technical director was involuntarily or indirectly overshadowed by the arrival of Fred Vasseur in the team, who is considered to all intents and purposes as the true architect of this new positive cycle (at least until now) Ferrari. However, after Sanchez stepped down from the role of Head of Vehicle Concept, Ferrari’s current technical department remained the same as in years past and the much-criticized SF-23. Nonetheless, Vasseur renewed his trust in Cardile and his most trusted collaborators, thus formalizing the role of technical director to the Italian engineer who, from what he learned from Formula One, his contract is not currently expiring. Also for this, the chances of Cardile going to Aston Martin, as of today, should be considered low but it is a situation to be monitored and very similar to the one experienced by Red Bull last year, with Wache in great demand by Ferrari. Much will depend on Cardile’s willingness to leave Maranello or not, as was the case with Wache and which led to two renewals in the space of a few months with the Milton Keynes team.
However, there is more to it since Lawrence Stroll hasn’t canceled the Newey dream yet. Since the first survey in Saudi Arabia, the attempts to convince Newey have not disappeared, on the contrary, they have been relaunched to try to ensure the performances of the English genius, who will leave Red Bull after the first quarter of 2025. The engineer from Stratford-upon -Avon, after having appreciated the offer proposed to him by Vasseur, which has not yet led to his signature, is however also listening to other teams, including Williams, who may have also proposed team actions to convince him. Ferrari, with Hamilton and Leclerc, remains in pole position when it comes to having no regrets, while Aston Martin or an English outsider may be considered more comfortable choices. However, if today it is as easy to criticize Fallows as Cardile was yesterday, it should be underlined that the performance stalemate of the Silverstone team cannot only be traced back to a problem of men but also and above all of infrastructure. Aston has been on the hunt for men and results for some time, however, this aggressive mode, while on the one hand it can show the level of ambition, on the other triggers a worrying instability that technicians generally don’t like.
