As Aston Martin bids to retain fourth place in the constructors’ standings against the major in-season gains made by McLaren, the AMR23 has been given an updated floor, bodywork and beam wing.
For Austin, the floor edge has been tweaked and a longitudinal slot plus outboard wing added, the wing having previously been mounted under the floor. The diffuser gains a revised side view expansion.
The engine cover bodywork has been modified with a large undercut alongside the revised floor edge, while a new beam wing with revised profiles and incidence will interact with the reshaped diffuser.
This four-part update has been conceived to work as one to increase the performance of the underside of the floor.
Since the US GP runs as a sprint race, there is only one practice session to validate the changes.
Aston Martin has already explained that the progress made towards its 2024 car has influenced the final tweaks made to this year’s challenger.
Fernando Alonso said: “Even if you stop someone now in the paddock and ask, ‘Which one had a better season until now, Aston Martin or McLaren?’ 99% of the people will say McLaren.
“They are 11 points behind so until now, actually we had a better season than them because we're still 11 points ahead.
“But it's true that the final race is what counts and is what stays in your head. These final couple of weekends, we are not up to speed. They've been better than us in terms of developing the car.
“So, we need to accept that, but 2024 is going to be a different thing.”
Meanwhile, ahead of forging a closer relationship with the Red Bull aerodynamic department in 2024, AlphaTauri has lavished the AT04 with a new floor, bodywork, rear corner and chassis tweak.
The forward central area of the floor has been updated, fences given a revised camber and the outermost fence significantly enlarged to improve the performance towards the front of the floor.
The team notes: “The outermost fence change keeps front wheel wake losses further away from the forward floor by generating a higher static pressure on their outboard side.”
The camber of the forward part of the floor edge wing has been upped and expanded rearward to “lower static pressure” and help “draw increased massflow under the forward floor”.
Upgraded engine cover bodywork increases cooling but without interrupting the performance of the rear wing while the rear corners gain revised winglets to improve diffuser performance by pushing the wake from the wheels further outboard.
Finally, the forward chassis lower surfaces have been changed. The team writes: “The revised surfaces local to the inboard front suspension increase local velocity, thereby generating an increase in local load on the chassis.”
