Aston Martin has received to the underside of its troubled Brazilian Grand Prix that left Lance Stroll out on the formation lap and Fernando Alonso battling excessive bouncing.
The Silverstone-based group endured a massively difficult race afternoon at Interlagos as Stroll spun into the wall on the formation lap after his rears unexpectedly locked, earlier than he managed to seashore himself within the gravel.
Then Alonso struggled all through with related rear locking points plus extreme porpoising that left him combating again ache on the finish, however he was decided to push on and see the chequered flag.
Talking on the group radio on the time, Alonso, who completed 14th, admitted that one thing uncommon was taking place. “This bouncing just isn’t regular,” he mentioned.
With no instant clarification for what occurred on each vehicles, Aston Martin has spent a while since returning to its manufacturing facility attempting to get a greater comprehension of the elements at play.
It now suspects that the issues on each vehicles had been triggered by an excellent nervous rear-end attribute that had been launched because of automobile adjustments made following the qualifying crashes the group suffered on Sunday morning.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24
Photograph by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Photos
Each Stroll and Alonso had hit the obstacles within the moist qualifying session, damaging the Suzuka-concept specification flooring the group had supposed to run for the Interlagos occasion.
With no spares of that specification obtainable, Aston Martin needed to revert to a earlier ground model – which was the one it first launched on the Hungarian GP.
Usually groups can’t change specs between qualifying and the race, as that could be a breach of parc ferme rules and mandates a pit lane begin.
Nonetheless, issues are totally different on a dash race weekend when allowances are made if there’s a scarcity of spare elements.
Article 40.4 says at dash weekends groups can change specification if they’ll “reveal there’s a scarcity of elements, and supplied that the substitute half is of a specification that has been beforehand utilized in a qualifying session or a race”.
It was this rule that Mercedes used at america GP to permit George Russell to return to an older specification of ground following his qualifying crash.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24, will get beached within the gravel previous to the beginning
Photograph by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Photos
The complication for Aston Martin, nevertheless, was that the change of ground needed to be made with out it having the ability to alter the mechanical set-up round it – as suspension settings are completely fastened in parc ferme.
So on a weekend the place groups had been battling the issues of extreme bumps on the Interlagos observe, plus tough climate circumstances, the tip end result was a automobile whose aero platform and mechanical settings didn’t match up.
Talking about what Aston Martin has discovered since Brazil, group principal Mike Krack thinks a mix of parts got here collectively to go away each its drivers with a automobile that was extremely nervous.
“It was clear that each drivers had been battling a automobile that was extremely troublesome to drive throughout Sunday’s race,” he mentioned. “Our post-weekend evaluation has highlighted a number of elements that specify this.
“Following each automobile’s accidents in qualifying, we needed to exchange loads of elements with a unique specification because of availabilities on the finish of a triple header. That is allowed by the Dash Occasion rules, and also you declare your shortages and substitute choices to the FIA earlier than the occasion.
“[But] you aren’t allowed to vary the mechanical set-up of the vehicles. This meant we might neither test nor regulate the set-up of the vehicles which negatively affected aerodynamic behaviour and efficiency.
Mike Krack, Crew Principal, Aston Martin F1 Crew
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photos
“Add in treacherous moist circumstances, together with an extremely bumpy observe, and you start to grasp that each drivers had the chances stacked towards them.
“Each vehicles had been extremely inclined to wheel locking, and we will see within the information that that is what precipitated the problems for each Lance and Fernando.”
Aston Martin has been experimenting with its ground selections in current races, with an improve it delivered for Austin not delivering the step ahead hoped for.
It reverted to the Suzuka spec from Mexico, and should decide to the Budapest model for the following high-speed races in Las Vegas and Qatar.