Aston Martin pinpoint key ‘design criteria’ as major focus

Aston Martin has highlighted the DRS as a key area to focus on with its “completely different” AMR24.

In 2023, Red Bull’s use of the drag reduction system was seen as one of the factors behind its dominance as it was able to stall the rear wing to dump even more drag than would usually happen when the flap was open.

Other teams cottoned onto what the Milton Keynes-based squad was doing, with Aston Martin beginning to bring upgrades towards the end of the year aimed at replicating what was happening with the RB19.

To try and capitalise on this, Aston Martin opted for a different aerodynamic philosophy with the 2024 car, which performance director Tom McCullough hopes will enable it to unlock more from its DRS.

“We went with quite a different philosophy with the car, aerodynamically, at the start of the year to try and give ourselves a platform to keep developing,” McCullough told media when asked by RacingNews365 how different he thought cars would be by the end of the season

“At the moment, development is pretty good although it is a relative game.

“We had some bits [in Saudi Arabia], which were a good step on the car, and we very rarely race the same spec of the car.

“At the moment, we’re in that phase where we are able to develop well with our development tools, so it is about getting those bits to the track as quickly as possible and hoping that the development continues.

“The DRS is very much one of the design criteria that we have, and we just want to keep chipping away improving the car and getting closer to the front of the grid.”