Otmar Szafnauer Reveals Inside Story of Aston Martin’s Inspiring Comeback From Being Backmarkers

Seeing Sebastian Vettel retire at the end of 2022 was one of the most heartbreaking moments as an F1 fan. What made it worse was Aston Martin not being able to provide the four-time champ a competitive car for his last hurrah. After a disappointing stint at Ferrari, Vettel saw a glimmer in Lawrence Stroll’s new project. Alas, the car was only good enough to be the seventh best. Only if Sebastian Vettel postponed retirement for a year, as the AMR23 was a beast during the 2023 season. Former Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer reveals the story behind Aston Martin’s comeback. 

Aston Martin, formerly Force India, was always known for punching above its weight. And with the backing of Lawrence Stroll‘s money and resources, everyone expected the team to fight for wins. However, after a disappointing couple of years, the Silverstone-based team was hoping for a better 2023, at least where it could fight for the points and become a midfield challenger. But to everyone’s surprise, the Green team came out all guns blazing and proved to be worthy challengers to the big guns – Ferrari and Mercedes. At least in the first half of the season. 

It seemed as if the Silverstone-based team had turned its fortunes upside down in just a year. Fernando Alonso scored podiums in the first half like it was child’s play. But it wasn’t just a year’s worth of hard work that paid off. The expansion of the team and pooling of the resources began much earlier than 2023. And it took a while for everything to gel together, but the AMR23 displayed the results. 

Otmar Szafnauer, speaking with Peter Windsor, talked about Aston Martin’s comeback. He said, “People look at Aston and say, ‘Look at Aston, they did it from one year to the next. Seventh fastest team, and then, at the beginning of 2023, they are the second fastest team. How could that happen in a year?’ And no, it didn’t happen in a year. All those recruits took time, and it was in the background that all this happened. And, we have to remember that Lawrence bought the team in 2018, and they had a quick car in 2023. That’s five years by my calculations.“

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2023 wasn’t the end for Aston Martin, but the start of many things. The new factory with a state-of-the-art wind tunnel came into effect this year. Things are only about to get better. Aston Martin’s Technical Director Dan Fallows recently gave an update on the wind tunnel and the factory.

AMR25 to be the first car to reap benefits of the new wind tunnel

Aston Martin had a brilliant first half of 2023, but as the season went on, the car seemed to get slower. The upgrades were just not working. It is believed the correlation between the data and on-track results was off. Add to that the fact that the team moved into its new factory mid-season. Regardless, Dan Fallows expects to see the benefits of the new factory from next season, whereas the wind tunnel, which will be completed next year, will only benefit the 2025 challenger. 

Dan Fallows said, “The target for the wind tunnel is to be online in the middle of 2024. We’re hoping that will have at least some contribution to the ’25 [car]. I think, depending on how the commissioning and things of the tunnel goes, that will probably be the first car that will have a significant impact with the new tunnel. In terms of the factory itself, that’s coming online next year with various stages, so we’re hoping that the cars prior to that will see the benefit of the new factory as well.”

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What were your thoughts on Aston Martin being the second-fastest car at the start of 2023? Can the Silverstone-based team make similar strides for 2024?