Aston Martin failed to impress for most of last year until they made radical changes to the design in the second half of the season. With that in mind, this year’s AMR23 features differences in “every critical area.” 

This is the first machine completely designed under the technical leadership of Dan Fallows, who left Red Bull for Aston Martin in mid-2022. Not the first or last poaching of talent from the top teams we’ve seen from Aston Martin. 

While Fallows has said that he is content with the current car he expects that “two-thirds” of the package will change over the season as the team unlocks new paths for the concept. 

As Fallows explains, “The design team was adamant that it wanted to tackle these regulations without compromise, we want to move up the grid and start challenging the teams at the front – and you can’t do that by sitting back and being conservative.

“The AMR23 is a significant development of the car we refined in the latter half of 2022 – and we have improved it in every critical area. It optimises the solutions we felt would offer us the most performance, and it embodies the joint vision we have embraced and have built together over the recent months.

“Now we need to focus on delivering an ambitious yet efficient programme of updates for the first race and across the remainder of the season.” 

The game plan this year, according to team principal, Mike Krack, is a “strong start and then maintaining momentum.” 

“For this year our aim must be to build a car that can fully deliver on its performance potential from the first moment it hits the track. Making a strong start to the year and then maintaining momentum is necessary if we are to make further advances towards the front of the grid, and as an organisation, we are working hard to achieve that.” 

While there have been huge advances for Aston Martin, driver, Fernando Alonso, admits that he doesn’t expect to be fighting for wins or podiums in 2023, but believes the long-term project will deliver those championship goals. 

As Alonso said at the AMR23 launch, “This is probably my last team that I drive for, and I have known Lawrence and Lance for years… I said in Abu Dhabi, even if I am not driving, I would be super proud to be part of this organisation. 

“If one day we have Aston Martin dominating races and championships and the two drivers are fighting for the championship like Red Bull and Sebastian or [Mark Webber], and to help [Stroll] fight for the championship it will be a proud moment for me.” 

For this year specifically, Alonso wants to ensure that “this car and the baseline is the one we will develop the future Aston Martin cars from.” 

“Last year,” continued Alonso, “the package had some difficulties as we all saw from the outside, and the team went through quite a few things during the season and they improved a lot at the end of the year. Those difficulties are good for sure when you understand them and you can programme something from that car.”