It hasn’t been easy to be an Aston Martin Formula 1 driver. Though the team has been amassing resources to stage a strong resurgence, 2023 and 2024 were tough.

According to Fernando Alonso, that comes down to some issues with the Mercedes wind tunnel, which the team uses to test its cars.

Fernando Alonso pinpoints Mercedes wind tunnel in Aston struggles

When it comes to building a Formula 1 car, there is an almost unlimited number of components that must come together to create a quick and competent car — which means there is any number of ways a car’s development can go wrong.

This challenge is even greater for teams that rely on competitors for resources.

Consider, for example, Aston Martin. The team shares a lineage with a luxury automotive manufacturer, but it doesn’t have the ability to build its own power units, nor does it have access to its own wind tunnel — not until January 1.

According to Aston’s Fernando Alonso, this is a big concern.

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Alonso was asked what went wrong with Aston Martin on the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast — but the Spaniard didn’t have any one answer.

“It’s not an easy solution or an easy answer because if not, probably we will do it a little bit easier than what we have found, but I think a problem of, you know, understanding a little bit the insides of the car,” he said.

Critically, he also mentioned the wind tunnel.

Alonso feels Aston faced “some of the wind tunnel problems that I think also Mercedes faced last year in terms of developing the car.

“Our wind tunnel usage is a little bit limited by using the Mercedes tunnel.”

In effect, Mercedes was “tricked” by its wind tunnel figures in developing its 2023 car.

For some reason, the wind tunnel data did not correlate with the data the team was gathering in on-track simulations. The scale model and its simulations were producing “sensational” figures, Mark Hughes explained on an episode of The Race F1 podcast.

“Mercedes was going into that season believing it was going to have an enormous advantage and there was an exciting buzz leaking out about just how good this car was before it ran,” Hughes said.

The reality, though, was much different. This was an era where the team attempted to debut a “zero sidepod” concept — which, though radical in the wind tunnel, was a disaster on the track.

Mercedes pinned the issue on its scale models. Could the same thing have happened to Aston?

Mike Krack, team principal at Aston Martin, acknowledged to Sports Illustrated that the wind tunnel likely played a role in stymieing his team’s progress. However, he declined to pin all of the blame on that one factor.

Speaking to the Chequered Flag podcast, Alonso said the same.

“I think a little bit of coming from one side, little bit of the wind tunnel, little bit from our own understanding the factory,” the Spaniard said.

“It was a mix of things that we think contributed to the lack of development.”

While 2025 will likely still be a struggle, there’s hope on the horizon for Aston. Its own bespoke wind tunnel will be available for use on 1 January, 2025, which means the team will no longer have to rely on others for aerodynamic testing.

Further, the team has hired the likes of Adrian Newey, one of modern Formula 1’s design masterminds.

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