06/03/2023
NEWS STORY
Christian Horner unsurprised by the pace of the 'Green Bull' as Aston Martin's recruitment drive, which netted the likes of Dan Fallows, pays off.
During testing and over the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, Mercedes claimed that Aston Martin had effectively copied the rear end of its car.
However, zero-sidepod concepts aside, it was the front of the AMR23 that impressed, and according to Christian Horner that is largely due to Aston Martin's recruitment of various members of his team over the last year or so, most notably Dan Fallows.
"I think it demonstrates to all the teams that it's possible," said Horner when asked if he was surprised by the speed with which Aston Martin has improved. "They've obviously done a good job over the winter.
"They say imitation is the biggest form of flattery," he grinned, "and it's good to see the old car going so well."
Asked if he regrets losing Fallows, he said: "No, because I think we have a wonderful team and everything has to evolve. Nothing stands still.
"It's flattering to see the resemblance of that car to ours," he added, so it was great to see the three of them on the podium."
Indeed, the same comment was made by Sergio Perez at the press conference. "Oh, it's nice to see three Red Bull cars on the podium!" said the Mexican.
Much has been made of whether the rules introduced last year will eventually lead to car convergence. A recently as December, while still at Williams, FX Demaison admitted that this would likely be the case.
"When you see the speed of the blue car, I'm sure... I mean, already we've seen many cars try to go in that direction... So I'll be surprised if not more and more cars are heading in the same direction.
"You can't avoid it," he added. "It's motor sport. You always copy the fastest car. That's Formula 1."
Ironically, Red Bull's chief engineer, Paul Monaghan, didn't agree. "I don't think the cars will have an identical appearance," he said. "I don't think we're at that point, yet.
"The regulations govern the shape more closely than they used to," he continued, "but there are some differences, particularly if you look at the Mercedes, the Ferrari and the Red Bull. There are some significant differences.
"There are regulation changes coming along for next year (2023), are we going to all have the same solution at race one? I doubt it. That doesn't seem to be the way of our sport. So I think there will be differences there. They will be smaller in magnitude to those we've seen in say, 2010, 2011, '12, and so on, and so forth. That's the evolution of the sport and so be it."
"I think that the operating windows of these cars are very narrow," said Horner yesterday, and every team in the top three looks like its developed its own theme and one team have adopted our theme and have made a gain so at some point it is going to converge and that can happen within a season."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Manama here.