Aston Martin Deny Claims That Sharing Mercedes Wind Tunnel Was No Excuse For 2024 Failure

The Aston Martin F1 team faced a bit of slump over the 2024 season. During the 2023 season, the Silverstone based team had become regulars on the podium due to the excellence of Fernando Alonso but the story in 2024 is proving to be entirely different. During the 2024 season, Aston Martin have not won even a single podium as compared to the seven they won last year. Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack suggested that sharing a wind tunnel with Mercedes could have played a role in the team's downfall but is no excuse for all of the failures. 

Mike Krack Speaks On The Windtunnel Situation 

“I think that would be too easy of an excuse. We have another team using the same wind tunnel with less time. So this is not an excuse.” said Krack on the compromise that Aston Martin was having to make by sharing a wind tunnel with Mercedes.  

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When asked about if that was a cause for the performance deficit that Aston Martin faced, Krack replied with, "That's possible, but still, we are quite far behind that team. So it's maybe a factor for them.

“It's maybe a factor for us, but I think with the same tool, we could do better.” 

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Aston Martin have began making their own state of the art wind tunnel and it will be operational from January onwards. Aston Martin have also made some technical hirings including F1's design guru Adrian Newey, all in the quest to win their first world championship. 

“We Were A Customer Team For Many Years"- Mike Krack 

“If you are a team in the building process, it's not only to put the wind tunnel there but also to have the technology and the methodology and the way you go about testing. The same is [true] for simulation.

“We were a customer team for many years and you have to build all these things in parallel, but if that is the choice you make, you should not use it as an excuse afterwards.

“You have that part [the wind tunnel] that has to be developed, but you have also a car to be developed and you must not use one to excuse the other,” Mike Krack stated as he refused to blame the team's current form on the situation in the team.