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The Formula 1 Midfield Teams Battle and How Aston Martin Impressed Everyone

Aston Martin came storming in the Bahrain Grand Prix, with an almost 42-year-old Fernando Alonso taking the last place on the podium and an injured Lance Stroll from a cycling accident taking P6.
Formula 1 Midfield Teams Battle and How Aston Martin Impressed Everyone 13 photos
Photo: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team
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Finally, the big investment from Lawrence Stroll, who acquired the team back in 2018, is paying off. Everybody from Aston Martin is hoping that this is just a first step on the road to something much bigger.

If you remember from last week, Aston Martin was humbling big teams like Ferrari and Mercedes. At the same time, Fernando and Lance indeed had some help from Charles Leclerc (with the Ferrari driver retiring due to mechanical problems on lap 41). Still, the two-time world champion with Renault in 2005 and 2006 had to earn that podium place the hard way, battling with the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and the two Silver Arrows.

In a classic Alonso way, he made the debut for his new team in a big way. For example, in his first race at McLaren in 2007, he achieved P2 at the Australian Grand Prix, and on his debut at Ferrari at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix, he won the race. In the 2023 race at the Sakhir International Circuit, Aston Martin was not even close to the dominant Red Bull cars, but they were the best of the rest.

Fernando was in a different league when he caught and overtook the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton after a fun but quick battle on track. For now, I am unsure if Aston can keep the status of the second-best team on the grid. Still, the season opener validated that the British team had made a significant step forward since the previous season when they finished seventh in the standings.

Formula 1 Midfield Teams Battle and How Aston Martin Impressed Everyone
Photo: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team/Twitter
It was a big hit for the other midfield teams always competing with Aston Martin. It's the same thing as in school. You know, when somebody jumps from mediocre notes in classes to straight A's. Well, Aston is that guy. McLaren had regressed a lot since 2021, when they even took a victory at the Italian Grand Prix. They put all their eggs into one basket and all their hopes on the new wind tunnel and simulator.

Now the question arises: Why has McLaren not been able to achieve the same thing as Aston already? They are the same as Aston Martin, a very well-funded Mercedes customer team with a lot of money to spend and a good workforce. In addition, being one of the most successful teams in the history of Formula 1, they have the same ambition as the front teams.

However, Aston Martin and McLaren have slightly different approaches. Aston is using the Mercedes tunnel, which helped the German team win the constructors' championship for eight straight years. Meanwhile, McLaren is still using the old and outdated Toyota facility in Cologne, which has some significant limitations. At the same time, buying the gearbox and the rear suspension directly from Mercedes costs Aston Martin more than McLaren will be spending building those parts on their own. Theoretically, that means McLaren should have more of its budget cap to pay for aerodynamic development.

Still, from the aerodynamic perspective, Aston is outdoing McLaren by a big margin. As a result, McLaren will bring a heavily updated car a few races into the season. However, to give them some breathing space, McLaren declared that all of their problems would disappear by 2025, so we have to wait and see.

Formula 1 Midfield Teams Battle and How Aston Martin Impressed Everyone
Photo: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team/Twitter
Meanwhile, Alpine doesn't have such an excuse. Alpine did a better job than both the British teams last year. However, at the 2023 season opener in Bahrain, the progress made was disguised by a weekend with a lot of bad luck. Keep in mind that the French team won their first and only race since rebranding as Alpine at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, but in the previous season, they only finished eighth in the constructors' championship.

In comparison, Alpine is a real works team, so they are pursuing their own long-term path, whereas Aston Martin has been able to take some shortcuts as a Mercedes customer team. The French team has its own wind tunnel, which is still being improved. At the same time, a good excuse is that Renault (the mother company) has had a lot of technical leadership instability in the last couple of years.

While the process is a long one, I hope that Alpine will eventually be able to produce a front-running car because, if you remember, the rebranding from 2021 was similar to a reset button for Renault because of their campaign to jump at the front of the midfield failed.

In comparison, Aston Martin has some new challenges to deal with. They have to move to their new wind tunnel when it is ready sometime next year. At the same time, the British team's engineers will have to adapt to a new factory starting this summer, where they will learn to take on manufacturing components. At some point in the future, Aston will no longer be able to rely on Mercedes for certain parts for different reasons.

Formula 1 Midfield Teams Battle and How Aston Martin Impressed Everyone
Photo: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team/Twitter
Team owner Lawrence Stroll's massive objective is to make Aston Martin one of history's greatest Formula 1 teams. For the moment, he has made some impressive and significant investments and recruited some notable names from this competition.

As a result, the team grew to 700 people from its original headcount of 400 in 2018. Combine that with the talent, knowledge, and experience of Fernando Alosno, and something incredible can happen. Hopefully, the impressive results from Bahrain weren't just a thing of good luck for Aston Martin.
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About the author: Silvian Irimia
Silvian Irimia profile photo

Silvian may be the youngest member of our team, being born in the 2000s, but you won't find someone more passionate than him when it comes to motorsport. An automotive engineer by trade, Silvian considers the Ferrari F50 his favorite car, with the original Lamborghini Countach a close second.
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