Aston Martin factory computer render.
Aston Martin have predicted it will be 2025 before fans see the benefit of having their own wind tunnel, but it may take longer for the full effect to be seen.
The team broke ground on their new factory in September 2021 having used the ‘Team Silverstone’ base since 2018 when Lawrence Stroll and his team Racing Point purchased the Force India team which was in administration.
The base, which is over the road from the Silverstone circuit, first came into being in 1990 when it was built for use by the Jordan F1 team, but 32 years have passed since then and while the name on the front of their building has frequently changed, the base largely has not.
With aspirations above their current station, Aston Martin, funded by Stroll and his ambitious goal to be a title contender, announced the creation of a new £150 million to £200 million campus around the site of the current base which will house a new factory as well as their own wind tunnel.
Aston Martin currently use Mercedes’ wind tunnel, which is an eight-mile drive down the A43, but believe having their own facility in-house will greatly improve their chances of achieving Stroll’s lofty goal.
PlanetF1.com was part of a media delegation that descended on the work site shortly after the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and while there are still currently more hard hats than racing helmets on display, Aston Martin have predicted the wind tunnel will be up and running by the middle of 2024.
Dan Fallows, who left Red Bull to join the Aston Martin project in 2022, said he believed the first car that would see the benefits of the wind tunnel would be the AMR25.
“I think the target for the wind tunnel is to be online in the middle of 2024,” he told media including PlanetF1.com “So we’re hoping that we’ll have at least some contribution to the AMR25.
“I think, depending on how the commissioning and things of the tunnel goes, that will be probably the first car that will be able to have a significant impact with a new tunnel.
“In terms of the factory itself, obviously, that’s coming online next year, with various stages. So we were hoping that the car prior to that will see the benefit of the factory as well.”
Aston Martin taking all the right steps to achieve Lawrence Stroll’s dream
If Aston Martin fail to ever become title contenders, it will not be through the want of trying. The resources, both finically and on a personnel level, that have been poured into the project has been unlike anything else on the grid.
From nabbing Fallows from Red Bull as well as ex-Red Bull designer Andrew Alessi to building the new factory and wind tunnel, it seems that Aston Martin are taking the right steps to be fighting at the top end of the grid.
Fallows is perhaps the best man to judge this kind of progress having been at Red Bull following their acquisition of the Jaguar team and was part of five Drivers’ World Championships and four Constructors’.
He himself has felt a similar kind of atmosphere to the early Red Bull days and both Mike Krack and Stroll will be hoping it yields similar results.
Keyword: Aston Martin target AMR25 as first challenger to benefit from new wind tunnel