Aston Martin is the big surprise at the start of the season in the Formula 1 World Championship. Hand in hand with Dan Fallows and Eric BlandinLawrence Stroll’s star signings in the aerodynamic area, the British team has been able to improve substantially from one year to the next, and has placed a car in the hands of Fernando Alonso, the AMR23, which already newborn has been able to compete face to face with Ferrari and Mercedessigning the 99th podium for the Asturian in his debut race.
Even so, in the absence of upgrade packages that will modify up to two-thirds of the original car throughout the year, from the Silverstone-based team, Alonso included, They have tried to be as cautious and prudent as possible., especially seeing how far Red Bull is still. They know that in Formula 1 it is never good to sell the bear’s skin before hunting it.
Its potential is evident, it is there and its main rivals have recognized it immediately, but they are more demure and prefer to work in silence and talk on the track. While the others minimally evolve a car concept introduced last year, the AMR23 is completely new, and It has a significantly higher margin for improvement than the restwith permission from Red Bull.
Despite everything, and his good start at the Sakhir circuit, Aston Martin has indicated that the next two Grands Prix, in Saudi Arabia and Australia, would be less favorable for the characteristics of the AMR23, which will enjoy its first major update at the Miami Grand Prix. Both Jeddah and Melbourne are drawn with high speed cornering, little aggressive braking and less degradationwhich does not favor Aston Martin on paper.
Own Fernando Alonso This is how he expressed it at the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix: “Now we are going to Jeddah, I am curious about Saudi Arabia and Australia. They are very different circuits, with high-speed corners and little degradation. I think that in Bahrain we were strong in aspects such as we may not find in Jeddah and Melbourne. if we are strong in the next two races we will have a very good 2023“.
And as if it were a prophecy, in a matter of hours, that more pessimistic than expected verdict could have been completely turned around. At least, that is the conclusion that can be drawn from the words of Nuno Pinto, physiotherapist and trainer considered as Lance Stroll’s right handAlonso’s teammate at Aston Martin and son of the owner of the team.
The Portuguese has revealed that team calculations forecast AMR23 to have better potential in Saudi Arabia than BahrainContrary to the belief that the Aston Martin components themselves had established about their drop in performance at the Saudi Arabian GP. Jeddah’s street circuit is very different from Sakhir’sand a priori it looks like a layout more favorable for the cars that ‘flyed’ on the straights of Bahrainamong which was not the AMR23.
However, Nuno Pinto wanted to make it clear, through the information he shares daily with Stroll, that Aston Martin configured its car especially for that race, with more downforce to take care of the tires as much as possible. A strategy that, clearly, had a lot of effect and resulted in a podium finish for Alonso and the team.
Therefore, and always according to the testimony of Pinto in the Portuguese podcast Let’s talk about FUmin Jeddah the green cars should have a better performance: “You have to analyze the reality of the numbers. In theory, Bahrain was not the strongest circuit for the team at the start of the championship. In theory, the potential of the car in Jeddah was better than in Bahrain, taking degradation out of the equation, speaking of pure and simple competition.“.
I have had to delete the tweets about Jeddah. For those who saw them: they were not true. A little bird told me that… pic.twitter.com/ZhOtKgxF3O
— Aston Martin F1 News 🇪🇸 (@AstonF1Spain) March 9, 2023
On the other hand, Nuno has revealed what could be the most favorable circuits for the British teamamong which he did not mention any surprising layout based on the characteristics of the AMR23, and he could even forget about tracks like Monaco, where the entire paddock agrees that Aston Martin can be unbeatable: “I want to get to Barcelona, I want to get to Budapest, I want to get to Austria…“.
Promising and exciting words that, like all information related to the ‘Great Circus’, they have to be taken with tweezers and be treated more like assumptions than realities. Nevertheless, the same could be said of the first analyzes of Aston MartinAt least the officials, who contradicted the version of one of the workers closest to Lance Stroll, who must know something about the potential of AMR23.
As a curiosity, and always giving the right credibility to everything that happens on social networks, Nuno Pinto’s words have gone viral in a matter of hours and have revolutionized Twitter once again. so much that the accounts most closely linked to official information about Aston Martin have been ‘forced’ to withdraw the information. In fact, the podcast in which the Portuguese physio participates is no longer available on the official YouTube channel of Vamos Falar de FUm (private video).
Without a doubt, the performance of the AMR23, of Aston Martin, and of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will be unknown until the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix arrives, and the lights of the urban circuit of Jeddah come on. Some say that it’s nothing more than talk, that a physio, no matter how close he is to the pilot, cannot know this type of thing. Others, on the other hand, believe that the team itself has given the order to remove the content to continue maintaining a low profile that allows them to surprise again in Saudi Arabia. Pure secrecy.
That is the version that they prefer to maintain officially at Aston Martin, as reflected by their team manager, Mike Krack:”The difference with Red Bull is still considerable. We do not know the management they did. It was quite comfortable for them to use the mandatory tires and drive to the end. youWe have a good result, we have improved our car. We can’t stop having our feet on the ground. We knew we had good race pace, but a lot of things could go wrong. To be honest, on the second lap, I wasn’t dreaming of the podium.”
Be that as it may, what is clear is that Aston Martin is still on the lips of the whole world, and has the eyes of all Formula 1 on them. Therefore, it would not be surprising that they want, in effect, prevent and silence any information leakageno matter how small, to keep the chance to challenge the almighty Red Bull, which only happens to catch them off guard and improve the car much more than they do. Only time can clear us of doubts, in just 9 days in Jeddah.
