Who would have bet that Aston Martin would be on the second row of the grid with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso at the Formula 1 race in Brazil? After the disastrous weekends in the USA and Mexico, such a scenario seemed unlikely.
Three out of four times the start was from the pit lane while the team tried to find out more about the update package presented in Austin. To make matters worse, Alonso retired from both races with underbody damage.
Team boss Mike Krack promised after the race in Mexico that Aston Martin would rely on the data to decide what to run in Brazil over the weekend and would not necessarily use the all-new package just to prove it works .
The engineers decided what would work best for the specific challenges at Interlagos, combining elements of old and new.
Formula 1: Aston Martin boss “very satisfied” after Brazil qualification
There were encouraging signs as Stroll finished sixth in practice. Of course, you can never be sure what everyone will do in practice, but this performance was confirmed in qualifying.
Stroll and Alonso finished sixth and seventh in Q1 under normal conditions, and when there was a threat of rain but the track was still dry, the Spaniard even finished fourth in Q2, while his teammate was only tenth.
The pace was really good and Aston Martin felt like only Red Bull and McLaren had faster cars. In Q3 it was all about timing and making the best of the situation when the rain started. The team at Silverstone and its drivers did exactly the right thing.
“It’s a good result today, I think we can all be very happy with what we achieved,” said Krack to Motorsport.com’s global voice after the session.
“Today we really have to classify everything as teamwork. From the analysis we did, to choosing the package we brought here, the implementation, the driving and then being there at the end.”
“The distances are so close here,” adds performance director Tom McCullough. “But the team put the best car we have on the track with everything we’ve learned in the last few races. And they handled every single session well. To be honest, I was really impressed with the performance .”
Be the first to leave the pits
The key in Q3 was to get both cars to the pit exit before everyone else in order to be able to complete a lap as quickly as possible. While this seems like a no-brainer in hindsight, others preferred to head out a little later, hoping to catch just the right window of time before the rain came.
This also prevented the tires from losing temperature while the drivers at the end of the pit lane waited for the traffic lights to turn green.
Inspired by what Kevin Magnussen did with Haas last year when he came out of the pits first and secured pole position, Aston Martin’s strategy proved correct despite the problem with tire temperatures.
McCullough, who was Nico Hulkenberg’s engineer at Williams when the German took pole position on a drying track in Brazil 13 years ago, says the strategy was clear.
“If you have the first two cars in Q3, you obviously have the best chance of doing a lap before the rain comes,” he emphasizes. “The conditions were difficult. The tire temperatures weren’t optimal either. But you can’t have everything.
Magnussen as a good example
“We also had traffic on the lap because some of the guys who went out later were also a bit in the way. But hey, second row, third and fourth place, a fantastic result.”
“It’s like 2010 when Nico got the pole. You don’t know what the weather is going to do here. So you go out,” said McCullough. “We saw it with Kevin last year: you’re ahead, the rain comes faster than the radar tells you, and you just go for a lap.”
“We were pretty disappointed with the laps, they weren’t great, the drivers were struggling. But it’s a relative game, isn’t it? A lot of people behind us spun on the grass and then the rain came. That was really fantastic .”
Krack agrees that Magnussen’s pole start in 2022 was a good example of what to do when dark clouds gather in Brazil: “We learned last year with Kevin that you have to be first in such threatening weather.” , he says.
“It’s true that you lose tire temperature. But if you’re a little ahead of the rain and someone else gets the rain, that has a much bigger impact than tire temperature.”
“So it’s a decision that you have to make. The work on the pit wall today was really world-class. And then the drivers did a fantastic job, but it was also very, very strong in the garage,” he praises.
“And I think the drivers had to implement that too, and they did it very well. I think it’s a big relief to be in a better position than we were last time.”
Never the same car in 21 races
But which specification of the AMR23 did the team actually use? “This configuration has never been driven before,” says Krack. “It’s a mix. I always say the cars are very complicated, very complex, and you have to try to understand that.”
“Big compliments to everyone at the factory and here, how hard everyone has worked in the last few weeks to define all of this, but also to set a direction for next year. I think this is a reward for everyone.”
We tend to analyze the immediate impact of updates, be they positive or negative, and the world has inevitably gotten the impression that Aston has missed its mark with the Austin package. But it is not that easy.
“To be honest, we have never used the same package in 21 races,” says McCollough, counting the canceled race in Imola. “We have a combination of parts that is best suited for this track. And that’s a lot of parts on the car. We learned on the track to understand the car and we just tried to go as fast as possible. “
“The whole car is a mixture of everything you do all year round. Under the hood lies the pitfalls of these Formula 1 cars. It’s the details, the little things that people don’t see. It’s a combination from many parts, and overall it was really good under today’s conditions on this track.”
“The reality here is that the gaps are very close, but in the dry, I think Fernando was only beaten by the Red Bull and the McLaren. So the gaps are very, very close, as always here. But what counts are points .”
Stroll “did a great job”
Sunday has now become very important, especially for Stroll. Of course, it won’t be easy for the Canadian to defend his third place – the McLarens are very fast and Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz also have fast cars – but he can take a big step towards turning the season around.
“He did a great job,” praises Krack. “I mean, there’s nothing to say. He was there from practice, he was happy with the car. And he even got it through Q1. We actually wanted to drive three times, based on the results of the last few weeks. But We didn’t have to, so he stopped.”
“And I think he felt very comfortable. I think we were really lucky that we got into Q3 with both cars, because the gaps are just extremely small. And then it was a great lap at the end,” said Crack.
“In the end it was very difficult with the changing wind and the approaching weather, but I think all in all we can be happy and I’m really happy for Lance,” said Krack.