(Motorsports news) Aston Martin, like other teams, has put in a lot of work to catch up; the most recent version of the rear wing was visible on the AMR23 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last month. There is no denying that the Milton Keynes team has improved its straight line speed more than any other team with an open DRS since the current regulations were implemented in 2022.
“We noticed Red Bull were very strong at that last year, so they sort of took the march on that,” stated McCullough. “I recall that in Jeddah last year, everyone was saying, ‘Wow, that’s a pretty big DRS switch. It is evident that the way the entire back of the car interacts with the loading on the diffuser, beam wing, rear wing, main plane, flap, and brake ducts is very different from earlier models of cars.
The goal is to create a stable, aerodynamic platform free of porpoising and other undesirable characteristics, to carry a heavy load, and to have the greatest feasible reach when the DRS is opened. “We didn’t have a particularly strong one to start off with, and we were just systematically developing to increase that while trying to retain stability.”
According to Aston Martin’s Tom McCullough, the compromises involved in optimizing the DRS switch have made it difficult. “So all those elements of the back of the car are linked,” he explained. “Within the rules, there’s only so much you can accomplish. Your constant goal is to minimize drag and generate downforce.
Furthermore, the aerodynamic teams face difficulties in getting the DRS switch and all those components to function properly. “And that’s why you’ve seen quite a lot of development in that area, not only by ourselves, but by other people too.”
When asked about the Abu Dhabi wing trial, he replied: “For us, it was important to get it on the car the end of this year just to correlate what we see in the wind tunnel and CFD, and we did some cross-car, cross-session compares, and the wing is performing well.”
Also read: Alonso: Aston Martin “more than anyone else” deserved to win the Formula One in 2023
