Why Aston Martin are fully committed to their bold upgrade schedule

Recent weeks have seen a Formula 1 development war underway with most teams bringing new parts almost every race, and rivals carefully checking the FIA’s official list of aerodynamic upgrades issued each Friday.

However one competitor has taken a step back from the usual schedule to follow its own path – and despite the pain that entails, has stuck to it.

At the start of the season, Aston Martin were so far off where they needed to be that, with an eye on the cost cap, Team Principal Adrian Newey opted for a radical strategy. Rather than opt for the usual drip feed of new bits, he decided to focus on one major package to be delivered around the summer break.

The result is that while Aston have been improving some elements of their package, the AMR26’s aero spec has not changed. Meanwhile, Honda’s upgrades are also a work-in-progress.

With rivals elsewhere making progress though, the gap has been growing.

“I think that's probably correct,” says Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack. “You can say we stand still. We are not standing still, because there are a lot of things that are going on beyond the [FIA] declarations. But it is a fact that we have seen that others are moving on.

“But we have a leader that has taken the decision to do it like this. And it sounds repetitive, but you take as a team a decision like that, and you commit to it – you have to commit to it.

“And we should also not complain every other week that we have these deficiencies, but you have to stick together and get the maximum out of it, and be prepared for better times.”

Krack admits that the progress of others makes it even harder: “It is a fact that people have moved on. I think especially at the beginning of such a regulation cycle, there are more gains to be found, and we have seen that. We are always checking our relative competitivity.

“I repeat, we have committed to this – and we have to stick to our strategy, and not complain about it, once we have committed to it.”

Krack concedes that there were alternative views within the camp when the upgrade schedule was decided.

“Obviously, there's always different opinions,” he said. “And they go around what steps can you make? How much budget you have at your disposal? And then there is a decision that is taken. In a team environment, it's often that you have diverging opinions.

“But when you decide to commit, you have to commit 100% and not 80, and then go to the coffee machine and complain about it. We have taken that decision, and we just have to work to that, even if it's hard. It's easy to be negative, to become distracted and complain about the world.

“I think we need to be resilient to that, follow our path, follow the direction that our team leader has taken, and it's quite simple. Now, there is obviously the emotional bit – but you have to put that behind, and keep working.”

It’s not been easy for the Aston Martin drivers to arrive at each race weekend knowing that for now, the car isn’t getting any better.

“Right now we're far off the pace,” says Lance Stroll of the need to wait. “So we need big steps to catch up, not small incremental upgrades. I don't think they will make much of a difference, because we're four seconds off the lead cars, so we need the big package, whenever that will come.”

“I think we took the first three or four races to really understand our weaknesses and our limitations,” adds Fernando Alonso. “To start testing in the wind tunnel solutions, to see also the other cars, what kind of solutions they implement, and which ones of them are working.

“And when you take all that on the table, you start programming the upgraded package, and obviously it takes time. And yeah, after missing Barcelona, and being in Bahrain with a bad first test, and knowing our situation in Australia – back then we didn't know if we could complete the race, that was the uncomfortable truth that we found.

“I think the decision was made, and I think it's the right decision. And for us it doesn't change to bring three or four tenths in a couple of Grands Prix, and still be fighting at the back, so we need something bigger than that.

“Everyone in the factory is working flat out, and we need to give credit to them. We don't know yet the results, and we don't see the result yet. But we cannot underestimate Aston Martin as much as has been done in the last few weeks.”