Aston Martin is not planning to make any major aerodynamic upgrades to its current car this year.
However, the team intends to introduce some lighter parts to bring the ARM26 closer to the minimum weight.
The team introduced a package of aerodynamic upgrades during the last two events. “This will be the last aerodynamic development planned for this car,” said Enrico Cardele, chief technical officer. The team’s website said.
“The only exception will be when, as we develop the 2027 car, we discover something that makes sense to test on track this year to help our connection. But as of now, there is no other timeline.
“We still have our weight reduction program to complete. This should be done throughout Baku. From Baku onwards, we will be running the final version of the car for the rest of the season.”
The team’s weight reduction program has been “sufficient to significantly improve lap time” so far but the car still exceeds the minimum weight. “In Baku, we should be very close to the weight limit, which is where you always want to be,” Cardell said.
Honda, the team’s power unit supplier, also provided a major upgrade in the latest round. The improvements helped together Fernando Alonso He recorded the team’s best result of the season so far with ninth place.
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“Honda works hard,” Cardell said. “There are several upgrades in the pipeline – hardware and software – to improve the way we control and manage the engine.”
“We are exploring how far we can push this power unit architecture to deliver the performance we need,” he added. “That’s the focus now.
“We did see some unwanted behavior when we ran the new spec engine during the filming day after the Hungarian Grand Prix, and despite the very short turnaround period between the summer shutdown and the Dutch Grand Prix, Honda was able to mitigate these issues.”
However, he expects this weekend’s race at the high-speed Monza circuit to be difficult for the team.
“If I say ‘difficult’, I’m probably being polite. Monza doesn’t have many corners and that means there are fewer places where the driver and chassis can make a big difference. It’s mostly about being perfect in some corners and then getting low traction and high power on the straights.
“Monza is a track that will fully expose the weaknesses of our car. From a pure performance point of view, we have to be realistic about our expectations. But this should not detract from the progress the team has made.”
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Formula 1
