Dan Fallows on the most important test results

Aston Martin technical director Dan Fallows believes the team has taken a step forward in the development of this year’s AMR24, which can be considered one of the key results of the pre-season testing.

Dan Fallows: “Three days of testing are almost over and so far everything is going well. I would like to share information about the balance of power, but it is clear that this will not become clear until next week. For the time being, we are fully concentrating on our own program, although we already have a general idea of ​​what the total picture looks like. But our main task is to ensure that in the winter off-season we have managed to progress to the extent that we would like to progress.

I think we have reason to believe that we really succeeded, and overall we are happy with our new car. I think this is the most important result of the tests.

Some minor problems with a new car are always possible, but it is clear that we did not detect anything serious. And we resolved all problems that arose during the work on the circuit very quickly. It’s always difficult to find the right approach for a new car, to learn how to configure it – that’s what we do, so that the drivers and the team are as best prepared as possible for the next weekend.

We identified several problems halfway through last season, but we were able to solve them and tried to take that experience into account when creating a new car. It was essential to ensure that the AMR23 could form the basis for this year’s chassis. It seems that this is indeed the case, and now, as the championship progresses, we need to gradually increase the downforce and speed.

Last season we finished among the leaders of the middle group, even though the competition was very close. In the early stages of the new season we expect to take the next step forward, but I have no doubt that everyone else has exactly the same mentality. If we are among the teams that compete for high results, then that suits us well.

Now it is important to understand how much we are behind the leaders, whether Red Bull remains the leader – it seems that this team is still ahead. But we need to figure out how big its benefit is, and how quickly we can reduce it. Therefore, the position we will be in at the start of the season is one question, but the most important task is another: we have to decide how to build further work.”