Bringing 'Aggressive' Upgrades Could Have Been 'Best Thing Ever to Do' Says McCullough

Wednesday, 13 December 2023 at 03:00

Aston Martin's performance director, Tom McCullough, discussed the aggressive upgrades that ruined the United States Grand Prix weekend for his team.

Aston Martin team came to the Circuit of the Americas with the promise of great progress in pace. The British team brought significant upgrades to their cars with hopes of getting back on the podium after four unsuccessful races.

However, the weekend did not go as planned for the team at all. Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll failed to get out of Q1 in Qualifying and were set to start the Grand Prix race from P17 and P19. As reported by RacingNews365, Tom McCullough said:

"We knew it was aggressive bringing some of the test parts we brought to Austin, which was a Sprint event, we then unfortunately operationally had some problems with brake temperatures, and we didn't get the most out of that session."

Read also

Top 3 Current F1 Drivers According To McLaren Team Principal

After the failed Free Practice session, Aston Martin was left with an upgraded car that wasn't working and decided to make significant changes, which meant its drivers would have to start the Grand Prix from the pit lane.

"That put us on the back foot with quite a different characteristic car to understand, which is why we ended up starting from the back and doing some big changes."

Both drivers ended up making a decent recovery as they moved up the field, and both got into the points positions, but Alonso had to retire his car due to technical issues. On the other hand, Stroll finished in P7.

The team's performance director does not regret the decision to bring upgrades into Austin. While it was a risky move, he concluded it had a decent chance of being "the best thing ever to do":

"Was it a bit too aggressive bringing those parts to a Sprint event? We discussed a lot about doing that, and if we had a clean free practice I think we would have said that was the best thing ever to do - but we didn't."