Aston Martin Not Looking at Copying Rivals to Make the Car Go Faster – Dan Fallows

Dan Fallows says everyone within the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team are using their own methods to add performance to their car, and they are not looking to copy their rivals to make them faster.

Fallows, who joined Aston Martin as Technical Director in 2022 after leaving Red Bull Racing midway through 2021 where he acted as Head of Aerodynamics, says his new team has recruited some ‘very talented’ individuals with a lot of experience, and they are all keen to share their ideas.

As well as Fallows, deputy Technical Director Eric Blandin has been brought in from the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, while Engineering Director Luca Furbatto was moved to Aston Martin from Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN.

And Fallows says that collectively, all the engineers at the Silverstone-based outfit will be working together as a team to develop the next Aston Martin Formula 1 car for 2023 and help them move up from their seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship of 2022.

“We’re keen to learn from what other people do well,” said Fallows to Motorsport.com.  “And it’s something I’ve always found, when you recruit people there is always something you can learn that other teams are doing, but also we’ve been fortunate enough to recruit some very talented and experienced people who have their own ideas about what makes a car go fast.

“The nice thing is they’ve come into this environment very open-minded, very willing to forge their own way of doing things using that experience, that collective experience, to go our own way.

“The important thing for us is to make sure we don’t just replicate what our competitors do. We don’t believe that is going to help us overtake the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.

“So we have to develop our own way of doing things. That does take time, but we’ve got a hugely ambitious group of people, and one of the things about seeing the new factory come together is it demonstrates this momentum, this wish to kind of accelerate the process of moving up the grid and getting into a winning situation.

“And I think that’s what’s really going to help us get there, this passion, this motivation and this belief we will get there eventually.”

Fallows says he was proud to have been a part of the Red Bull set-up for a number of years, and he says he learned a lot about how to go about doing things from working for the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

“There’s a number of reasons why Red Bull are good,” Fallows said. “They’ve managed, over a period of years, to iron out issues in every aspect of the team, whether that be the race team, the manufacturing facilities, the design office, and a lot of building that kind of success is making sure there are no areas where you have substantial weaknesses.

“In many ways, I’m very proud that I was part of that on the engineering side. They’re an incredibly strong team, and I think that I do have that experience of what it means to win races and win championships.

“I think the key message is that you have to make sure that in every aspect of what you’re doing there are no holes, no things that you’re doing that can be compromising your performance as you go along.”