General
Fallows looks at former colleague Newey's RB19: 'Need to improve everything'
- Toby McLuskie
Dan Fallows has been responsible for designing the AMR23 at Aston Martin as head of aerodynamics. That car is performing above expectations, which has already yielded four podium finishes and a provisional second place in the constructors' championship. Yet Fallows knows it needs to do better, as Red Bull Racing is still the benchmark.
For now, especially on Sundays, the Austrian racing stable is several tenths a lap too fast for Aston Martin's team. The team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez is the benchmark and so, according to Fallows, Aston Martin needs to "see where they stand in relation to Red Bull".
"I think Red Bull as a concept has evolved a bit more than ours. We switched to a completely different concept at the beginning of last year. So we are still developing that. We think we have made a big step this year, but we still have a little way to go. And I think, honestly, I wouldn't single out one area as a weak point. I think we need to improve everything," Fallows is quoted by Motorsport.com.
Aston Martin wants progression
So the 49-year-old Briton, who served as Adrian Newey 's right-hand man at Red Bull for many years, thinks there is even more potential in car development at Aston Martin than at the current constructors' World Championship leader. Whether that is true and how that will manifest itself further, we may see in the coming months.
Aston Martin still has 37 per cent more development time in the wind tunnel than Red Bull until around the end of June (as they finished only seventh in the world championship last year), but that will change in the second half of 2023. The British formation will be classed as second in the World Championship from 1 July, which means they will no longer be allowed to use 100 per cent but 75 per cent of the time. Check out exactly how that works here.