With Fernando Alonso having helped breathe some excitement into the early races, as he emerged as the shock main challenger to Red Bull, the squad even came close to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix.
But after an impressive six podium finishes out of the first eight races, including seconds in Monaco and Canada, things became a bit more difficult.
Alonso’s best results since the Austrian GP have been fifth places, and it is McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari that have instead grabbed the podiums behind Red Bull.
The change in form has prompted a great deal of intrigue, with Alonso himself hinting that it could have been linked to the change of tyre construction that Pirelli introduced from the British GP.
Aston Martin’s senior management dismissed this theory though, and instead suggested that it was more related to an upgrade package it introduced at the Canadian Grand Prix triggering some characteristic changes that the team did not get on top of immediately.
These ‘side effects’, as team principal Mike Krack referred to recently, were not noticeable in Montreal because of the low downforce/drag nature of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – but did become more exposed when extra load was required at the subsequent races.
As performance director, Tom McCullough explained: “You always try to add base performance, but you very rarely can add it without any characteristic change. So, there's always that that you're trying to understand.”
A more encouraging performance in Belgium, as Alonso came home in fifth place, left the team feeling that it had turned the corner in its understanding of the car, and could now look forward to a better second half of the season.
“The data looks positive from what we have seen so far,” said Krack. “We looked to be more competitive than recently.”
Source: Autosport