The end of Dan Fallows' tenure as Aston Martin's F1 technical director is linked to performance issues, Tom McCullough has revealed. The latter, particularly concerned in this area as performance director of the British structure, also wanted to highlight the successes of the ex-Red Bull engineer.
Because last year, it was under his orders that Aston Martin made an exceptional leap in the hierarchy, going from seventh in the field in 2022 to second behind Red Bull during the first third of the 2023 season. However , gradually, performances declined, the fault of insufficient development and going in the wrong direction, and the 2024 campaign started with the same dynamics, the team this time being unable to do better than fight for the top 10.
At the same time, in order to put itself in battle order for 2026, the manufacturer continued to recruit technical figures from other teams, starting obviously with Adrian Newey, who came from Red Bull, but also from 'Enrico Cardile, former Ferrari chassis manager. Under these conditions, it was therefore decided that Fallows' place in the team's organizational chart had to change.
It's basically a decision made by the team.
“This year the team's performance hasn't been at the level that we all wanted. So we've fallen short. And that's basically a decision made by the team.”McCullough said. “I've sat next to Dan for the last two or three years since he's been here and worked closely with him. He's had a very big impact on the development of the 2022 car, on the 2023 car, and he brought a lot to the team, to be honest.”
“From that point of view, I had a lot of fun working with him. But ultimately, during the 2024 season, we didn't perform as well on track as we hoped and as we expected. Developing these cars has been difficult and, ultimately, it's a performance-based discipline, right. And the team made the decision to make some changes. changes.”
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
Even if the performance remains far from expectations, McCullough believes that Aston has still managed to better identify and control the problems of the AMR24, so that he displays reasonable optimism for 2025. He also puts the emphasis on the feedback from the drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, in the work of understanding the difficulties of the 2024 campaign.
“I definitely think we understand the car, but you have to judge on the piece, right?”added the British technician. “You know, living in a world of CFDs and wind tunnels is one thing; I think that aspect is progressing reasonably well.”
“[Mais] It’s relative work. Until the car drives on the track and we see what it does in reality, we can't be sure. However, I believe that the lessons we have learned this year put us in a good position, but obviously we would like to see this happen a little more quickly in reality.”
“The two drivers are quite close in their feedback and on the limits of the car. They both want a more efficient car, they want to fight for the points race after race, and for the big points. And when we don't give them “Let's not give a car that can do it, they're not satisfied, and we understand that it's difficult.”
“There are a lot of meetings with the drivers, whether online or at the factory, to explain to them what we are doing, why we are doing it, what we have found. I think it is important to keep them informed so they understand.”
With Ruben Zimmermann and Jake Boxall-Legge
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