Bill Aston, F1 driver

After using customer units from McLaren and latterly Mercedes since its early Force India days in 2009, the Silverstone outfit is currently ramping its own transmission department ahead of 2026, when its new relationship with Honda obliges the team to create a bespoke gearbox.Inevitably, that push has focused Aston’s attention on the costs associated with designing and producing gearboxes, and ...

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The team made a bigger loss despite upping its turnover from sponsorship and prize money by over £32m, with the numbers reflecting an overall increase in costs in the first year of the new regulations.Following a reorganisation, the team now operates under the banner of AMR GP Limited, which is a subsidiary of AMR GP Holdings Limited, although the headline numbers across the two entities are in ...

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A surge in competitiveness by McLaren since a mid-season upgrade has left the Woking-based squad just 49 points behind Aston Martin in the fight for fourth place in the constructors' championship.Norris has no doubts that McLaren now has a car that can help close the gap in the remaining six races, and thinks that an ace up its sleeve is the fact that he and team-mate Oscar Piastri are both ...

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Having started the 2023 season as Red Bull’s main rival, Aston Martin has slipped back into the chasing pack and is now having to fight hard just to finish in the points. During the Suzuka race last weekend, Alonso did not hold back when it came to letting his feelings be known about how things were developing. Having been the first top six runner to pit on a day when tyre degradation was ...

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Hawkins thus became the first woman to test a current or near-current grand prix car since Tatiana Calderon had a brief outing in a Sauber C37 on a filming day in Mexico in 2018, although the Colombian also drove a 2013-spec C32 for the Swiss outfit later that year and then in 2019.Former W Series driver Hawkins has previously driven older F1 cars in demonstration runs, and has been awaiting her ...

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Alonso, who once famously described his Honda power unit as a "GP2 engine", made the remark in the course of a fraught race that saw him finish 11th.He received a five-second penalty after he made a mistake and crossed the pit entry, suffered a lengthy delay in the pits, and struggled for much of the race with a car that had an issue with a dislodged aero part.Singapore was the first time in 2023 ...

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Stroll felt as though his final flying lap in Q1 had been heavily disrupted by poor tyre preparation, traffic and dirty air. That prompted the Canadian to 'send it' into the final corners at Marina Bay.But from running over the exit kerb, the rear of his AMR23 stepped out and he speared into the outside wall before the wreckage slid back across the circuit to trigger a red flag stoppage.While ...

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The Silverstone-based team concedes that this year's car has been weak in that area, which is why it endured such a difficult weekend at Monza.Fernando Alonso had his least competitive showing of the season at the Italian Grand Prix, struggling to finish ninth, while Lance Stroll was out of the points in 16th.Alonso has urged the team to address efficiency, and McCullough agrees that it is a ...

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Mercedes has endured a challenging campaign, where the progress it had hoped to make with its W14 failed to materialise as it has found itself on the back foot against Red Bull.It realised quite soon in the season that it had got its overall car concept wrong and had aimed to run its aero platform too high, which gave away too much performance compared to rivals who are running much closer to the ...

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The team struggled for performance with its low downforce package over the Italian GP weekend, with Fernando Alonso qualifying 10th and finishing ninth, and Lance Stroll out of the points in 16th from 20th on the grid.With Ferrari logging third and fourth the Maranello team moved ahead of Aston into third place in the constructors' championship.The race provided the team with a painful reminder of ...

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The Spaniard got through the first two qualifying segments in 10th and ninth places before finishing Q3 in 10th, which represents his worst grid position of the 2023 season so far.Alonso says that it was apparent at the start of the season that the team needs to improve its straightline performance, and still has to understand why it is lagging behind Williams, whose car is always competitive at ...

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In last weekend’s Dutch GP, Alonso and Aston had their most competitive race since Canada in June, with the Spaniard charging up to second and chasing Max Verstappen across the line after the restart following the red flag.Alonso has generally been cautious this season when talking about form, but on his in-lap he said “we will win one race soon, we are getting closer.”Zandvoort was his ...

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Stroll has struggled all season to match the form of team-mate Fernando Alonso, although circumstances have also often hampered his weekends, such as the team's decision to keep him out on slicks during the wet early laps in the Dutch GP.Paddock gossip has suggested that Stroll might be considering his future as an F1 driver, although he has laughed off the idea that he might move into tennis. It ...

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The FIA cost cap and Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions that limit wind tunnel and CFD hours push teams to start early on the development of a new car rather than immediately spend their way out of trouble.With the ATR having reset on 1 July, Aston Martin has lost 20% of its aero testing time - down from 40 wind tunnel runs to 32 - to reflect its climb from seventh place in the constructors' ...

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The interesting new addition could be found beneath the AMR23’s rear crash structure, as the designers had found a way to utilise a small bowtie-style winglet to work in conjunction with changes that were also made to the surface of the diffuser.And, whilst the team did not race the item in the end, its introduction is not one that should be taken lightly – as the team had clearly gone the ...

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The small bowtie-shaped device was located under the rear crash structure, in an area that has not previously been exploited by teams, and was designed to work in conjunction with the latest floor updates.Positioned exactly where the rear of the car is lifted in the pits meant Aston had to redesign the jack in order to ensure that the new part couldn’t be damaged.However, during practice last ...

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Drugovich has been an Aston junior driver for almost a year – he is also one of its official reserve drivers along with ex-McLaren racer Stoffel Vandoorne – and will take part in the FP1 action at the same Monza circuit where he secured the 2022 Formula 2 title. The Brazilian driver has previous experience of driving the AMR23 as he stood in for Stroll during several sessions of the Bahrain ...

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Aston Martin trails Mercedes by 51 points as the campaign resumes in Zandvoort after the summer break, with the Silverstone squad having experienced a dip in form since Canada.For this weekend, the team has submitted to the FIA a heavily revised floor and diffuser.A revised lower surface of the floor body, reshaped floor fences and tweaked floor edge have been conceived in tandem to improve ...

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Aston Martin sprung a surprise at the start of 2023 by competing for podiums after finishing 2022 in a lowly seventh position.A reinvigorated Fernando Alonso, who joined from Alpine, claimed six top three finishes, although recently the Silverstone team has found the going got tougher.Mercedes and Ferrari both took steps to rein Aston in, while McLaren too produced a remarkable car upgrade to put ...

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Aston Martin began the season as the surprise second-best team to Red Bull, with Alonso scoring six podium finishes across the opening eight weekends of the year, including second-place results in Monaco and Canada.However, as rival teams have introduced upgrades at recent grands prix, Aston Martin has fallen down the pecking order, with Mercedes and McLaren leapfrogging the Silverstone-based ...

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Aston Martin shocked F1 this year with its AMR23, the potential of which was rumoured to be huge even before a wheel had been turned at pre-season testing.The whispers and murmurs up and down the paddock about its prowess were confirmed in Bahrain, with a rejuvenated Fernando Alonso taking the podium and an injured Lance Stroll sixth, the first of six rostrums for the former.Aston's results ...

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Alonso carries around a reputation for being a tough customer keen on expanding his influence within a team, which was mainly born from his stints at McLaren.The two-time world champion joined Aston from Alpine for 2023, eager to secure a multi-year deal with the Lawrence Stroll-owned team.In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Krack says the team and Alonso are working harmoniously and ...

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The Silverstone-based squad started the year as Red Bull's main challenger but has since had to face an increased threat from Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren which have all made good gains during the campaign. A recent dip in form was blamed on the side effects of an upgrade path that the team took, but Motorsport.com also reported recently that the squad could have been hit by an FIA flexi wing ...

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With Fernando Alonso having helped breathe some excitement into the early races as he emerged as the shock main challenger to Red Bull, the squad even came close to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix.  But after an impressive six podium finishes out of the first eight races, including seconds in Monaco and Canada, things became a bit more difficult.  Alonso's best results since the Austrian GP ...

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The Silverstone-based squad started the 2023 campaign as Red Bull’s main rival, but has faced some recent struggles that dropped it back into the chasing pack behind F1’s most dominant team.Team principal Mike Krack explained ahead of last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix that its dip in form was related to a change of car characteristics – labelled ‘side effects’ – that were triggered ...

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