Aston Martin’s Tom McCullough: “We are looking forward to getting the new season underway”

Tom McCullough, the Performance Director at Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team, was full of praise for everyone at the team both trackside and at the factory for their efforts after a strong performance during pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

With Lance Stroll side-lined due to injury following a cycling accident, driving responsibilities fell to Fernando Alonso and test driver Felipe Drugovich, and both drivers performed well throughout the test in Sakhir last week.

McCullough says the team are still learning about the strengths and weaknesses of their AMR23, but they acquired a lot of data throughout the three days of testing that should benefit them going into the new FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, which begins this coming weekend in Bahrain.

“Day three is done and dusted,” said McCullough.  “We managed to complete our run plan and got a number of laps on the board with both drivers.

“Felipe did another strong job for us in the morning and Fernando continued in the afternoon. The car ran reliably and again we managed to gather a lot of data. We are still getting to understand the car and learning about various operational and procedural matters, but we have made good progress.

“Now our attention moves to the first race and applying everything we have learned this week to optimise things further. Huge credit to the team this week and in the lead up to testing.

“It has been a massive effort by everyone trackside and at the factory to get us to this point. We are looking forward to getting the new season underway.”