Sky Sports F1 Podcast: Are Aston Martin best placed to be next F1 world champions after Red Bull?

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Sky Sports F1’s David Croft is predicting Aston Martin as the team best placed to dominate Formula 1 in the future and succeed Red Bull as world champions.

Aston Martin, 2023’s surprise package with five podiums in the opening six races, are this week moving into their new “game-changing” factory at Silverstone and signed a works engine partnership with Honda from 2026 ahead of the Monaco GP.

Speaking on the latest edition of the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, which you can listen to in the player below, Crofty believes the investment Lawrence Stroll is making will result in Aston Martin becoming the next team to beat.

Crofty said: “I think where Aston have a slightly better advantage than Mercedes is the concepts of car that is succeeding in this current iteration of Formula 1 was not the Mercedes concepts that gave them so much domination from 2014 to 2021, where, you know, Lewis lost the title, obviously, but Mercedes were still constructors champions. They’ve had to reinvent their wheel, so to speak.

“Aston Martin, with Dan Fallows leading them technically, Dan coming from Red Bull, he understands where Adrian Newey’s inspiration and philosophy translates to a good car. So I think it’s right time, right place, right man.

“He understands where Adrian Newey’s been getting it right. And I think also there’s two other key members: there’s Eric Blondin in aerodynamics, who’s come from Mercedes, who Dan also worked with at Red Bull for a few years, and there’s Luca Furbatto on the chassis side. And all three of them have formed a very good technical leadership with the new staff that have come in to drive this team forward.

“The new factory is up and is operational. There’ll be a wind tunnel to come as well. There’ll be a conference centre eventually on that. There’ll be an engine project with Honda. They’ll be making their own gearboxes.

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Aston Martin executive chairman Lawrence Stroll says the team’s new partnership with Honda is the ‘final piece of the jigsaw’

“They’ll no longer be getting technical support from other people. They’ll be doing it all themselves. And with that comes challenges, but with that comes a lot more advanced information as to where the mounting points for the engine are going to be on the chassis, for instance.

“They could be, and I think they will be, the next Red Bull in Formula 1 – they’ve got the vision, they’ve got the money, they’ve got the strategy, they’ve got the people.

“And as [former Jordan, Williams and Ferrari engineer] Rob Smedley said to me, and Rob knows a few things, other than Red Bull at the moment, who else is more committed to winning than Aston Martin?

“It’s that commitment to win. You have to invest. And Mercedes have invested, Ferrari have invested, Aston Martin are investing.

“At this time in the present, they’re the team going forwards.”

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Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes Lance Stroll is very underrated and teammate Fernando Alonso will make him a better driver. You can listen to the latest episode of the Sky Sports F1 Podcast now.

Former Williams and McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya joined Crofty on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast and the Colombian said the arrival of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin is helping push the team to new heights.

“The key thing here for me is, apart from getting the key people, is getting them to work together and understand that each one has its own responsibility and being able to bond all together,” he said.

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Highlights of the Monaco Grand Prix at the sixth race of the season

“Because it’s very easy. You can bring the best aero guy, the best suspension guy, the best everything, but each one is pulling their own way and thinking they’re right and the other guy is wrong you’re never going to succeed.

“And that’s a little bit what Mercedes did before – Toto was really, really good at putting everything together. And Red Bull is very good at it as well. So I think Lawrence really understands that, how important people are.

“I think Fernando is kind of the driving force behind it right now. Everybody when Fernando got on board and is doing what he’s doing and is bringing people together.”

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Fernando Alonso says that Aston Martin tried to be aggressive on strategy but Max Verstappen was just too fast to challenge today

Seven-time Grand Prix winner Montoya also highlighted what Aston Martin need to make sure they do to be title contenders in 2024.

He said: “This year they came out with a great car. You got to give it to them. The car is unbelievable. It has really good speed, it drives really well, and I think Fernando’s done a really good job of driving the whole team behind him. You got to give it to him.

“The big question mark is can they replicate and come up with something as competitive next year. If you’re talking long-term it’s, you know what I mean, you’re not going to say what they did this year was a fluke.

“But you look at Mercedes with the people they have and everything, they came out this year worse again than last year. And you would have never thought after how much they dominated the sport before that they, I know they got it wrong last year, but come out this year with a worse car.

“It’s like, how can they do that? So the chances of getting a car wrong – I think it’s harder to get it right than wrong.”

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