Aston Martin is a team in transition, not only in terms of operational structure—with changes in engineering staff and organization—but also on the infrastructure front. For example, at the beginning of the season, the new wind tunnel finally came into operation after a long correlation process that took longer than expected due to the strategic importance of this tool.
The new wind tunnel was also used to map the latest technical updates, which were then introduced in Imola a few weeks ago, with the goal of obtaining an initial real-world comparison not only for known elements but also for components that had not yet been tested on track.
The first data collected provided positive indications in terms of correlation, one of the reasons why the Imola package, in addition to improving a struggling AMR25, was so crucial for the team—especially with an eye toward 2026—knowing they could rely on a trustworthy structure.
However, this doesn’t mean the work is done. When Aston Martin decided to upgrade its campus a few years ago, it invested not only in a new factory to house an increasing number of engineers and a state-of-the-art wind tunnel, but also in a new-generation simulator. Until then, the team was still using the simulator from the Force India era.
The issue is that, for now, the simulator continues to show correlation problems, directly affecting both setup preparation and development—two areas in which Aston has struggled over the past eighteen months. This was highlighted by Adrian Newey during his first official appearance in green at the Monaco weekend.
“I think it’s fair to say that some of our tools are weak, particularly the simulator: it needs a lot of work because right now it doesn’t provide consistent results, and that’s a problem since it’s a fundamental tool for research,” Adrian Newey said – “Not having it fully functional is a limitation, but obviously we need to find a way to work around the problem for now, and then come up with a plan to bring it to the required level. But to be honest, it will probably be a two-year project.” As the British designer emphasized, a two-year development timeline would be significant and would greatly slow progress.
“It’s a disadvantage. Hard to say how big. Simulators are used in two ways: one is as a research tool when designing next year’s car and integrating all the tools to model it optimally; the other is to develop the car’s setup, especially ahead of individual race weekends. So, in that area, we’ll be flying a bit blind for some time.”
However, responding to Newey’s comments that it would take two years to fix the simulator, Aston Martin Team Principal Andy Cowell explained that, in reality, just a few months would be enough to get it up and running.
“The simulator is a new tool that we activated between November and December of last year. I imagine Adrian had firsthand experience with the prep work and then saw how it translated into Free Practice sessions 1, 2, and 3,” Cowell explained.
“But we were clear from the start: we invested heavily in various tools, from the simulator to the wind tunnel. And when you develop such tools, it takes time to get them working, and then time to use them correctly. You need to run them to achieve good correlation.”
Drivers who have tried the new simulator immediately noticed a major improvement in functionality compared to the past, but the issue of correlation remains central. That’s precisely why the simulator will continue to be used, but with greater caution when interpreting the data.
“It won’t take two years, and it’s not that Adrian and I disagree. It just takes some time to fine-tune these things, but we’re not talking years—just a few months. We were discussing exactly this during the debriefing: we were talking about what the simulator indicated and what the track said. There’s a discrepancy.”
“So, what do we do going forward? We’ll continue using the simulator, but with a bit more caution before applying changes to the setup. Over time, you build confidence: you use it as a development tool to build that confidence, and at that point, it can become the main guide in development. That’s the path we’re on, and I don’t think it’s unusual for a team introducing a new tool.”
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