SSJ4 wrote: ↑30 Jul 2025, 12:23
F1 | ASTON MARTIN WILL BE DECIDING SOON IF THE NEW MERCEDES SUSPENSION WILL BE ADOPTED
At Silverstone, evaluations began on whether to use the new rear suspension components that Mercedes introduced in the spring.
Mercedes debuted a new rear suspension at Imola at the end of May. It took a few weeks for it to work. But then it paid off and helped the W16s, which scored a double podium with a win in Canada and generally improved tyre management. Now Aston Martin is seriously considering whether to adopt them for the final part of the 2025 season.
The AMR25s were not born under the best star. The single-seaters that share several components with the single-seaters driven by George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, however, are in search of improvement, although by now almost the entire Aston Martin Racing team is busy preparing the 2026 single-seaters.
The synergy with Mercedes - which will come to an end at the very end of this season with the switch of power units from Brixworth to Honda - gives the British team the opportunity to take advantage of the suspension that Mercedes has been using with regularity since Montreal.
The evaluations are ongoing. This was stated by Andy Cowell, team principal of Aston Martin. This, however, should not be a forced choice. The team will have to use the last working weeks before the summer break to make the necessary evaluations and make a decision.
"We are considering a switch to the new Mercedes rear suspension. We are researching what is possible with the components they provide and what we want to do,' Cowell admitted.
"It's also a question of assessing how much effort we want to put into the changes this year, rather than using what we already have. It is usually easier to fine-tune and optimise what you know than to make changes."
Changing the suspension during the course of the season - we have seen this with Mercedes and, more recently, with Ferrari - means having to make changes to the aerodynamics of the single-seaters as well as the vehicle dynamics themselves. In short, certainly not an uninvasive modification. That is why at Silverstone they will still take some time to work out whether and how to make this change.
"Changing the suspension during the season would change the vehicle dynamics and aerodynamics. The work on the dynamics, the simulation, the simulator with driver, the aerodynamics."
"Then dust off the 2025 wind tunnel model to get measurements, then do the hardware supply test measurements. At that point we'll have to figure out if everything will add up and if the single-seater will be faster. In this regard, we will understand more about what to do after the summer break."
https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-as ... /10746523/
