Aston Martin indicated that Dan Fallows’ departure from his F1 role was “performance based” after the team struggled during the F1 2024 season.

Former Red Bull man Fallows left his Aston Martin role in the F1 team last month ahead of Adrian Newey’s arrival, with the team going backwards in terms of development over the last 18 months.

Aston Martin explain reason behind Dan Fallows exit

Aston Martin said at the time that Fallows will “remain in the group” in an unspecified capacity.

The signing of Fallows in 2022 was considered a major coup for Aston Martin and the team’s huge upturn in performance at the start of F1 2023 suggested that a new era was dawning at the Silverstone team.

However, poor development during that season saw them slip down the order and F1 2024 proved equally as frustrating with the team finishing a distant fifth in the Constructors’ standings.

Behind the scenes, work has been going on to make the team the championship contender Lawrence Stroll wants it to be and Newey’s arrival from Red Bull in F1 2025 is seen as another major step in that journey.

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However, one man no longer on that journey is Fallows who was moved on following an underwhelming season.

“The performance of the team this year hasn’t been at the level that we’ve all been wanting it to be at,” performance director Tom McCullough said. “So we haven’t quite delivered there and that’s basically been a decision made by the team.

“I sat next to Dan for the last two or three years since he’s been here, working closely with him, he had a really big impact on the development of the ’22 car, the ’23 car.

“He’s brought a lot to the team, to be honest.

“From that side, it’s been good fun working with him. But ultimately during ’24, we haven’t delivered on track to the level that we know we’re expecting to and wanting to do.

“The development of these cars has been hard and ultimately it’s a performance-based industry. The team’s made the decision to make some changes.”

Speaking ahead of the final race, Fernando Alonso conceded that he felt his season had been over since just after the summer break.

“I’m happy that it’s over. I think it’s a very long season for everybody, for the mechanics, for everyone in the team,” he said. “Twenty-four races is ultra demanding, especially the last triple that we did.

“I think when the championship is also over, like Max [Verstappen] won in Vegas, for us it is probably after summer.

“We were fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, no threats from behind, nothing to do in front of us.

“So the remaining seven or eight races are a little bit long because you are fighting for nothing. We tried to learn about the car for next year’s project. But apart from that, there is not much to do.

“I’m happy to take the winter break now and start from zero next year and hopefully be more competitive.”

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