Lance Stroll gives an insight into Aston Martin’s current problems, which should be clearly visible in Barcelona: understeer problematic in long corners
According to Aston Martin, improvements to its Formula 1 car this year have made the AMR24 more difficult to drive. The car is causing Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll major problems, especially at the limit – and that’s obviously not a good thing in an increasingly tight Formula 1 field.
So far, the team has not revealed many details about the specific weaknesses it has been struggling with. Alonso, in particular, is refusing to explain the problems ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.
When asked by local media if he could explain some of the details, Alonso replied: “No, of course not. If I didn’t, I would give all the information to everyone. So we keep it to ourselves. These cars have become a bit more critical in some situations when you build up more and more downforce.”
But while Alonso is reluctant to divulge anything, his teammate Lance Stroll reveals a little more about the driving dynamics – and the balance issues that make the Aston Martin a difficult car.
Unlike Mercedes, who struggle with the balance of power at different cornering speeds, Aston Martin has issues that relate to how the car drives through the corners.
In particular, mid-corner understeer is the AMR24’s biggest weakness – a characteristic that will be particularly evident in the long sweeping corners of Barcelona.
Stroll explains limitations
“It’s certainly a question of balance, but it’s not really a question of confidence,” explains Stroll. “It’s just that the balance of the car is limited.”
“It’s not a difficult car to drive when it comes to getting a lap together. We just have limits on turn-in and stability, a lot of understeer in the middle of corners and things like that that we can’t avoid. “
“And when you are in a corner with a very long radius and have to live with a lot of understeer in the middle of the corner, you are simply limited,” said the Canadian.
“It’s not difficult to get through the corner. It’s simply a limitation of the balance in order to go faster. We can see that, together with the downforce, this is generally noticeable,” says Stroll.
Long corners always more difficult
According to Aston Martin’s Performance Director Tom McCullough, it is increasingly difficult to set up cars on tracks with longer corners: “A short corner is easier to set up, a long corner is more difficult,” he says. “Finding the balance in a long corner is always a bigger challenge. We’ve been working on this since Bahrain.”
McCullough continues: “There are always balance characteristics that you want to improve and we’ve been focusing on that and constantly bringing new parts to make that happen. So we’re slowly working on the improvement. “
“At the same time, we are also trying to improve the fundamental performance of the car, both aerodynamically and mechanically. We are simply trying to develop a car that the drivers can drive confidently and consistently from track to track. Everyone does that, but that was our main goal.”
Aston Martin knows what needs to be done, but is under no illusions about a quick fix – the upgrades to improve the situation are still a few races away.
“I think we’ve gathered a lot of information over the last few races and now it’s about tackling the problem,” says Stroll. “We have updates, but not this week or next week, but in the coming weekends and as soon as possible. So it’s more about addressing the problem than understanding it. “
