Mohammed ben Sulayem, the President of the FIA, believes the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team are creating a team and infrastructure that will eventually make them race winners in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
The team are currently in the process of building a new factory to replace their undersized and outdated one at Silverstone that is due to open later this year, while they are also going to build their own wind tunnel, although that will not be operational until midway through 2024.
Under the ownership of Lawrence Stroll, they have also invested in high-profile staff such as former Red Bull Racing engineer Dan Fallows, and for 2023, they will have the benefits of having the vastly experienced Fernando Alonso as race driver alongside Lance Stroll.
Ben Sulayem believes all this will help Aston Martin become a bigger force within Formula 1, although he knows it will take time for everything to gel before they become genuine contenders for race victories.
Since the Racing Point Formula 1 Team was rebranded as Aston Martin back in 2021, the team have seen just one podium finish, courtesy of Sebastian Vettel in that season’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but ben Sulayem predicts more are on the way.
“They should be able to do it, they are investing for it, they are on the way and they have a driver ready like Fernando so I think so,” ben Sulayem said to Motorsport.com. “But winning is very complicated.
“It’s the same with [Scuderia] Ferrari. It’s not because they’re slow, management or reliability or both are also important.
“However, I think that Aston Martin, with [team owner] Stroll, they are trying things by signing a new driver and new staff, new discipline, which is also very important.”