With three world champions on the Formula 1 grid in 2024, there is one driver who has surprised his team with his efficiency.
Having a world champion drive for your team can be an incredible asset and it has proven to reap results for Aston Martin in recent years. The team went from barely scraping the midfield at the beginning of 2022 to regularly scoring podiums and points last year.
Fernando Alonso earned the most podiums of any non-Red Bull driver last year (8 podiums), while he scored the bulk of the points which enabled them to finish fifth in the Constructors’ Championship last year.
Aston Martin’s performance director, Tom McCullough, has highlighted a key area that makes having the two-time world champion an advantage for the team.
Valuable feedback required from drivers in F1
Although Aston Martin has endured a difficult start to the 2024 season, key to their continued resurgence has been the constant valuable feedback from their drivers.
Driver feedback is one of the biggest qualities that teams look for in a driver as it compliments their main currency for performance: data.
During last year’s post-season test in Abu Dhabi, Alonso was found to be ‘extremely demanding’ by the team and blew them away with his technical prowess.
READ MORE: Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso’s life outside F1 from net worth to Cars 2
Aston Martin engineer praises Fernando Alonso’s efficiency
Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, McCullough highlights the benefits of working alongside Alonso when completing testing sessions.
“I often say drivers are the best sensors in the car, you can do a whole of testing and load of running, and at the end of the day you can sit down with him and he will pinpoint the things you need to spend a bit more time looking at,” said McCullough.
“He can’t do all the analysis, but he’ll say ‘I think that was important, you should take a look at it because the car was definitely better there. So if it isn’t your setup test, maybe it’s just the weather, the tyres, etc…’
“Fernando’s got that ability to feel the car and know what’s important. He’s the most efficient driver I’ve ever worked with. By that I mean, he’ll only say what’s worth saying in the debrief and you have to listen.”
Alonso – who has 22 pole positions to his name – has been widely regarded in F1 as one of the best drivers that should have more titles to his name, with legendary designer Adrian Newey admitting his regret at not working with him.
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