Aston Martin technical director Dan Fallows has warned rival F1 teams Mercedes and Ferrari that the longer they take to change car concept “the harder it is to do”.
Aston Martin have been the surprise package of F1 2023, scoring four podiums in five races.
Their remarkable run of form has put them ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari in the F1 constructors’ championship.
Aston Martin’s rise up the pecking order stems from their decision to change the car concept last year.
Over the winter, they’ve built on it significantly, allowing them to move into position to be the second-best team.
Speaking at the Miami Grand Prix, Fallows spoke about the different car concepts in play in F1 – with Mercedes and Ferrari still sticking with their original designs from last year.
“Once you’ve gone down the route of an aerodynamic concept particularly, it’s very difficult to shift fundamentally,” he said.
“And also, you have to really believe that that’s the right thing to do.
“There are conceptual differences between us and Ferrari, for example, and Mercedes and we’re actually very similar in pace the moment.
“So, I think it would be difficult for either of those teams to say that they’ve gone either in the wrong direction or they don’t want to change.
“It’ll be interesting to see whether anybody does shift it, but the longer time goes on, the harder that is to do.”
Even though Aston Martin have improved significantly, there’s still a substantial gap to Red Bull.
Fallows conceded that the team has to improve “everywhere” to close the gap to the current championship leaders.
“We need to consider where we are relative to the Red Bull but I think there are areas we believe we are relatively strong,” he added.
“We also have to optimise our car for every particular circuit which means there may be sometimes aspects, whether it’s low-speed or high-speed corners, which aren’t quite as strong as some other competitors. But I think the Red Bull as a concept has been evolved for a bit longer than ours.
“We very publicly went to a different concept early last year so we are still developing that. We think we’ve made a very big step this year but we still have a little way to go.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t point to one single area of it, I think we just need to improve everything.”
Keyword: Aston Martin tech guru Dan Fallows warns Mercedes, Ferrari about F1 car concept change