Newey: Aston Martin simulator does not provide correlation

      Adrian Newey made his first appearance at an Aston Martin race this weekend, and speaking to reporters in Monaco, he spoke about the most serious problems, from his point of view, that prevent the team from progressing.

      Newey started working at the new Aston Martin base in early March, and in general, what he saw at Silverstone made a good impression on him, but at the same time he revealed a serious flaw related to the simulator, which does not provide correlation.

      Newey is confident that the calculations made on the simulator are at odds with what he sees on the track, with the behavior of a real car, and this not only affects the quality of the team's preparation for the race weekends, but also slows down work on the 2026 project.

      Moreover, there is no quick solution to such problems.

      "I think, to be fair, it should be noted that some of our tools are not without drawbacks, first of all, this applies to the simulator on which the racers work," Newey quotes The Race publication. "Serious work needs to be done, because now it does not provide correlation, although it is one of the basic research tools. The lack of correlation is constraining.

      But for now, we just have to work, trying to get around this problem somehow, and then make a plan to solve it. But to be honest, it's probably a two-year project.  

      It is difficult to assess the impact of such a disadvantage; there are two approaches to using such simulators. In one case, it is a research tool when you are exploring possible areas of work in the process of developing next year's car, solving the problem of using all available tools comprehensively to create a better chassis model.

      In the second case, we are talking, of course, about the work on finding the optimal car settings, primarily in preparation for a particular race weekend. In fact, we will have to work blindly for some time. We will just try to rely on our experience, on the fact that we can still come to the right conclusions. Time will tell how successful this will be.

      The Aston Martin base is arguably the best in Formula 1, and the same can probably be said about the wind tunnel. Nowadays, this is a very complex tool, and the process of fine-tuning it is still ongoing. The performance of the wind tunnel is not yet at the proper level, and we continue to work on this.

      However, in the end, this tool can be somewhat compared with engine test benches. Such a tool is needed, and a properly tuned wind tunnel is, of course, preferable to one that does not work very well.

      But the human factor remains crucial, and the quality of any project depends on it."

      According to Newey, the organizational structure of Aston Martin F1 also needs to be improved: "There are a lot of very good specialists working in the team, and each of them is good in its own right. Probably, our task is to organize their more effective interaction. I think the current state of things is obviously rooted in the legacy inherited from Jordan, and then the team turned into Force India, after which it became Racing Point.

      It has always been a small team that has managed to show results that have slightly exceeded its capabilities. But now, in a short period of time, it has turned into a very large team, and the bottom line is that it is not performing well this year.

      I think one of the most important tasks now is to organize everything correctly and understand how to act so that each individual specialist works with maximum efficiency."