Aston Martin Performance Director Tom McCullough revealed the team wanted to develop their 2022 Formula 1 car, the AMR22 more, but the budget cap meant that was not possible.
Aston Martin have brought a major upgrade to their car, a B-spec AMR22 for the Spanish Grand Prix, that was a full departure from the concept they started the season with, the new car featuring Red Bull-style sidepods.
The revised AMR22 turned heads when launched, and Red Bull were vocal with worries about illegal knowledge transfer in light of numerous employees leaving them to join Aston Martin. The FIA however, found no wrongdoing.
McCullough claims that was a factor that many other updates were cancelled as the budget did not allow for more spending, and frankly Aston Martin have to be careful, as aside from Red Bull, they have been found to be in “procedural breach” of the 2021 F1 cost cap, for which they were fined $450,000.
Speaking in an interview with Aston Martin F1’s official website, McCullough said: “We want to get to the front of the midfield pack and then start charging ahead – to do that, we’ve got to be aggressive.
Development hampered by cost cap
“We tried to be aggressive as we could this year, but with the budget cap and resources available this has been difficult,” he revealed. “There are parts that we would love to have made. The front wing, for example, is largely the same as the one with which we started the year.
“There’s so much we could have done, but we couldn’t afford to within the budget cap – especially after the significant changes we made to car in Barcelona,” McCullough went on. “The formula has changed somewhat. Now, it’s about trying to pick the upgrades that will give you the best performance return versus the cost.”
McCullough said Aston Martin will apply all their learning from 2022 on next year’s car, but is wary that other teams will not be sitting still.
He declared: “For 2023, we’ve got to put all our ideas and learnings from this year together to deliver a significantly better car. It’s all relative though, as every other team will be doing the same.
“We think the path we’re now on is the right one, and we’ll be able to iterate our 2023 car to consistently deliver more performance rather than having to change concept mid-season,” the engineer concluded.