“Gentlemen, a short view back to the past..”, a reporter started as he asked Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and other drivers about the modern cars being too complicated to drive. While advancement in technology is a part of keeping F1 at the pinnacle of motorsports, it has also caused the sport to lose some of its DNA. Fernando Alonso recently spoke about the modern F1 cars and how precise feedback is now a thing of the past. 

An F1 driver’s job isn’t only limited to driving and pushing the car to the limit but also providing valuable feedback about how the car is feeling. It is only when this feedback is correlated with the number back at the factory that the team understands what’s working and what is not. This further gives the teams a direction to move forward in terms of upgrades. 

For example, if a team has brought upgrades to the rear end, including suspension and rear wing, a driver would be able to feel the difference in terms of how a car is reacting in low, medium, and high-speed corners. The drivers would then compare it to the old spec and tell what areas have been improved. However, the feedback is very specific. The rear end might be unstable going into the corner, mid-corner, and/or in the traction zone.

And with all the complexities of an F1 car, it becomes very difficult to point out exactly what the reason might be. Is it the upgrades or the tires reacting to the upgrades? Or is it just the setup? A lot of unknowns. And with so many factors, precise feedback might be very difficult. Whereas going back a couple of decades, it was all comparatively simple for the drivers to pinpoint the exact problem. 

Fernando Alonso has now elaborated on this issue and how it has become a nightmare for midfield teams with limited resources to counter that problem. Talking about AMR23’s downfall in the second half, Alonso in conversation with AMuS said, “These cars are more difficult to understand because the driver’s feedback is no longer so clear. Sometimes the balance of the car does not fit and you finish third. Then again you feel comfortable in the car and land in 14th place.”

He continued, “It has become much more complicated to filter out individual factors for a particular driving behavior. In the past, it was possible to say much more precisely whether the problem comes from the aerodynamics, the chassis or the tires.” 

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Regardless, Aston Martin sacrificed a couple of races to understand exactly what the problem with the car was to figure out a direction of development. Unfortunately, it came at the cost of losing points in those races. 

Aston Martin’s in-season test at the US GP and Mexico GP

Both Aston Martin’s started the US GP from the pitlane with Fernando Alonso shifting back to the old spec of the car. The driver and team sacrificed the US GP to understand the problems with the new spec and how it compares to a new one side by side. Mexico GP also had a similar theme where Lance Stroll started from the pitlane. However, after Mexico, Aston Martin understood exactly where the problem lay. 

Fernando Alonso said, “After Mexico, we understood many things much better.” And we saw at the Brazilian GP how much Aston Martin improved as Alonso scored a brilliant podium. The AMR23 brought in Brazil was a combination of parts from the old spec and new spec made to work together in unison. 

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