First up, the team has introduced a new rear wing configuration, with an onus on increasing downforce for the challenges posed by both the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and Monaco that the wings already at its disposal wouldn’t have resolved.
The design is most closely aligned to the one used in Bahrain, with the elements filling up more of the legality box and being angled more steeply too.
The team has also used different downforce offerings at the other circuits, with a spoon-shaped design to help reduce downforce and drag was deployed at both Jeddah and Miami, and a more conventional shape was favoured in Imola.
There have also been several changes to the halo and its fairing, not least the change from green paint in the front section to black instead, which begs the question as to why it didn’t choose to save even more weight and just leave it carbonfibre.
The team also mounted a new pair of fins on the rear upper section of the halo for FP1 that they removed during the session (red arrow), whilst another fin has been added ahead of the rear mounting (blue arrow)
which is likely an improvement based on the side-mounted winglet that’s been taken on and off the car during the first few races (purple arrow).
By far the biggest change made by Aston Martin in Spain is the sidepods, as it becomes the first team to make a U-turn and produce something similar to another challenger in a quest for more performance.
The challenges posed by such an undertaking should not be underestimated either, as it has not only required an aerodynamic rethink of the external surfaces but also adaptation of the internal layout of the heat exchangers, electronics and ancillaries housed within the sidepods.
As a consequence the inlet has also been pushed back, which the team hopes will still provide the necessary flow to cool the internals but also influence the external airflow more effectively too.
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This is aided by the team’s approach to the shape of the bodywork that surrounds the inlet, with the overall design clearly influenced by the Red Bull RB18 but requiring its own take in order to extract the performance it is looking for.
For example, the RB18 has an extended lip ahead of the inlet, which creates an open top, increasing the volume of air that can be captured – but the AMR22’s version does not.
The shoulder of the sidepod also has more of a bluff surface than its Red Bull counterpart, as the Aston designers look for their own way in which to push the tyre wake laterally that it encounters.
