Having finished in seventh place across both of their seasons in F1 so far, not much was expected of Aston Martin heading into 2023.
The team are backed by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll but have just been unable to provide their drivers with a race winning car so far.
Behind the scenes, Aston Martin have been poaching talented members of staff from the big teams, with Dan Fallows’ move to become Aston Martin’s technical director after serving as Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics being the most high-profile move so far.
Fallows has clearly brought a lot of his knowledge from his time at Red Bull with him to Aston Martin, with the AMR23 strongly resembling last season’s RB18.
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It has also been reported that the AMR23 is actually faster than the RB18 was, making it the second fastest car on the grid so far this season, behind the vastly superior RB19.
Fernando Alonso finished third at the Bahrain Grand Prix to secure his 99th and Aston Martin’s second podium in F1.
While Aston Martin currently look to have the beating of Ferrari and Mercedes in terms of race pace, team principal Mike Krack wants to wait a couple more weeks until assessing his team’s progress.
“I agree [that] it’s a big jump forward. Phenomenal would have been if we won the race,” said Krack when asked about the Bahrain Grand Prix.
“It is a very good step that we made, but also it is the first race of the year.
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“I think we need to wait two, three, four races to see how big the step is, but I think we can say that we made one.”
Aston Martin are reportedly looking to upgrade the majority of the AMR23 over the course of the season, proving that their strong start is unlikely to be a flash in the pan.
Due to their poor season last year, the team will have significantly more testing time available to help them improve their car compared to their rivals.