Aston Martin are edging ever closer to having the facilities in place to give the big hitters a serious run for their money, as the team’s new £200 million factory nears its grand opening.
The team’s new factory is set to be officially opened and used from late spring next year; however, a select group of F1 media were given a first look at the “game changer”.
The factory is being built just across the road from their current base, making an easy switch possible for the Silverstone-based team who will also have a top-level wind tunnel in the four-acre site.
Whilst the team will move in late spring 2023, the wind tunnel won’t be ready until mid-2023, and the entire site won’t be fully completed until towards the start of 2024.
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Remarkably, the whole build has been done through an investment from team owner Lawrence Stroll, who has kept it no secret that he wants Aston Martin to become a winning team, something which could happen as soon as next season with Sergio Pérez predicting the side to be very strong with Fernando Alonso onboard.
With the build reaching its end, team principal Mike Krack has revealed his joy at the side having every department together in the same building, one which will be in his opinion, the best in the sport.
“The fact we will be able to talk to people without having to arrange meetings, it will facilitate the dialogue massively,” said Krack.
“With the remote locations we currently have, you either need to pick up the phone or organise something.
“This is sometimes a natural barrier to more exchange, and the other thing is also logistics.
“We should not forget that to bring stuff from A to B, it will be massively different, massively easier.
“So from that point of view, I fully agree on using the name ‘game changer’ for team dynamics and logistics.”
Technical director Dan Fallows is expecting the team to be able to work together much easier once they move onto the facility, one which he predicts will make a “huge difference”.
“It will change it significantly,” said Fallows, on how the way the team works will change.
“[At present] We have this small factory and these modular buildings where we have some people who are not necessarily designing parts of the car at the moment but they are very connected to our design process.
“Having them not in the same room makes it slightly more difficult to communicate with them.
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“I’ve been in a big open-plan office before with the ability to be able to walk around and talk to people very easily, and it makes a huge difference in terms of the interactions.
“Particularly the serendipitous interactions where you can have a chat with somebody about one thing and go on to talk about a lot of other things.
“They often end up being the most creative conversations, and that’s what we are trying to build.”