Aston Martin may not be a leader on the track, but it is certainly one off it. This is evident in its ultra-modern Formula 1 factory. Motorsport Week and selected media were invited to view the new facility ahead of last weekend’s British Grand Prix.
Aston’s Formula 1 home shares the same access road as Silverstone and is built on the same plot of land where Jordan Grand Prix broke ground in the early 1990s. The various incarnations of the team that have survived the Silverstone factory have made the Aston Martin era of the Northamptonshire-based team very different to the periods that came before it.
Owner Lawrence Stroll is determined to turn Aston Martin into a world championship-caliber team. It’s why Fernando Alonso was signed as a driver, and why the likes of Dan Fallows, Tom McCullough and now Enrico Cardile have left their employers to wear British Racing Green.
The team is still trying to get its act together on track and does not yet have the performance to rival the likes of Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes or Ferrari. Aston Martin showed signs in the early stages of last season that it could be ahead of schedule when it emerged as Red Bull’s most consistent contender, and Alonso began his adventure in British Racing Green with six podiums in the first eight races alone to mark his individual return to the top.
However, a wrong development path and conceptual changes from rivals saw Aston Martin drop to where it currently sits in the Constructors’ Championship: fifth place. But while the Silverstone team is still recovering from further setbacks with updates that failed to deliver the intended progress, Aston Martin is making the gains it needs off the track to become a challenger.
Stroll Sr has invested massive amounts of money in the team since leading a consortium that took over the independent operation, then known as Force India, in mid-2018. The Canadian billionaire’s lucrative and hands-on hand has extended to authorising a £200m-plus overhaul. The outright ambition? To boast a HQ befitting a team of its title-winning calibre, just in time for when a powertrain partnership with Honda kicks in under new regulations in 2026.
“He wants to be at the front,” said Lance Stroll, Lawrence’s son and an Aston Martin F1 driver, at Silverstone. “He’s putting his heart, passion and ambition into the project. I mean, he’s giving everyone at Silverstone the tools to bring something special to the track. That’s what he’s given everyone at Silverstone, an opportunity to do that and the tools to do that.”
Meanwhile, a two-time champion like Alonso, who has already experienced false promises several times in his glittering and long-standing F1 career, has opted to remain with Aston Martin on a multi-year basis despite the team’s stagnant progress. The Spaniard has explained how influential Stroll Sr.’s ambitions have been in committing his prospects to the team.
“I think we are different from other teams, we have a great leader with Lawrence,” Alonso stressed. “We have not only the owner of the team, but also a very extremely competitive person behind us and we will solve things faster than other teams, I think, thanks to him.”
The factory is built in three segments, connected by an elevated walkway. Building one (pictured) opened in 2023 and houses design and manufacturing. It’s slick, clean and large. Building two, due to open soon, will feature a state-of-the-art gearbox dyno, among other things, but its primary function will be staff wellbeing. With a record 24 rounds now commonplace on the calendar, involving gruelling travel around the world, keeping the team in good spirits is essential to ensuring optimum performance across all departments. To that end, a gym and restaurant take centre stage, overlooking the miniature Silverstone-shaped racecourse outside.
Most of Aston’s hopes, however, lie in building three: it houses a state-of-the-art laser-guided wind tunnel and an aerodynamic modelling facility.
Until its own wind tunnel is up and running, Aston Martin will continue to use Mercedes’ wind tunnel facility in nearby Brackley. The German marque’s facility isn’t bad by any means, but Aston Martin will be hoping its brand-new, technologically-leading aerodynamic testing weapon will propel it to the front of the grid. Not only that, but by bringing everything in-house, Aston Martin will streamline its design, testing and production process, the benefits of which cannot be underestimated.
But as I walked around the new facility, which was largely bare as it waited for its new occupants, one thing was abundantly clear: Stroll walks the talk, and Aston Martin means business. But as ever in Formula 1, the progress will be evident on track in the years to come, as the stopwatch pits the green Aston Martin cars against the machines built by Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.