Construction of a wind tunnel at Aston Martin’s Silverstone base has been completed, with the company handing it over this week to begin commissioning.
In fact, this is the first new wind tunnel built specifically for Formula 1 in two decades. Testing and calibration are imminent, and the tunnel is expected to be ready for use before the end of this year, allowing the team to end its multi-year lease on the Mercedes wind tunnel in Brackley.
Luca FurbattoTechnical Director: “The commissioning will ensure that the interaction of the machine model with the base meets our requirements. There are other issues that need to be resolved. This will take two to three months.
The development of the 2026 car is allowed from January 2025, so we are perfectly on schedule. At the same time, we will continue to develop the 2025 car, balancing between two projects.
If I am not mistaken, the last wind tunnel specifically for Formula 1 was developed twenty years ago. The technology has changed a lot since then. Tools are now being used to visualize flows that did not exist twenty years ago. You can take a twenty-year-old wind tunnel and upgrade it with new technology, but that is not the same as starting with a completely new wind tunnel.
The Mercedes wind tunnel we’ve been using is quite good, but it’s obviously not our base; we tend to run it at the weekend, which is not exactly optimal.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
