Aston Martin will only Benefit from Use of Own Wind Tunnel from 2025 Season – Dan Fallows

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team will not benefit from their new wind tunnel until at least the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, according to Technical Director Dan Fallows.

Aston Martin are currently building a new factory at Silverstone, and part of the development plan is to build their own wind tunnel, something the current set-up does not have.

Fallows hopes the wind tunnel will be in operation midway through the 2024 season, which means the 2025 car will be the first to benefit from its use.

“The target for the wind tunnel is to be online in the middle of 2024,” Fallows is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “We’re hoping that will have at least some contribution to the ’25.

“I think depending on how the commissioning and things of the tunnel goes, that will be probably the first car that will have a significant impact with the new tunnel.

“In terms of the factory itself, that’s coming online next year with various stages, so we’re hoping that the cars prior to that will see the benefit of the new factory as well.”

Fallows insists the new wind tunnel will only be used once it is properly calibrated, and they will continue to make use of the one they borrow from the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team in the meantime.

“Inevitably when you build a wind tunnel you have to go through a commissioning process,” Fallows added. “And that’s really just to determine that it’s going to give you the numbers you expect to see.

“We’re fortunate enough to be testing in the Mercedes wind tunnel, which is a very high quality facility, so we need to make sure our new facility is giving results which are consistent with those.

“And that does take a certain amount of time. But there are things we can do to speed up that process. Obviously the target is to get in there as soon as we can.”

When the wind tunnel becomes active, Fallows is in no doubt that it will be a ‘world-class facility’ and having use of their own will be extremely beneficial to Aston Martin as it will allow them to do more than they can using Mercedes’ one.

“There’s no doubt that it will be a world-class facility, and having access to that 24/7 if required is obviously very important,” he said. 

“As we improve and our wind tunnel runs availability that we have from the Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions goes down, clearly we wouldn’t be spending as much time in the tunnel, but having your own facility means you can do other experiments as well, which is invaluable, and something we don’t necessarily have the luxury of doing at the moment sharing the tunnel with another team.”