New Aston Martin star signing makes his feelings known about the team's struggles in developing the car during the season

Aston Martin's newly appointed team principal, Andy Cowell, has addressed the team's shortcomings in car development during the 2024 season. Cowell explained that while the team introduced the most number of upgrades to their car, the results didn't match the expectations.

The Astons finished P5 in the constructors championship in the 2024 F1 season with a total of 94 points. Neither Fernando Alonso nor Lance Stroll managed to win a single race, continuing the team's downward trend.

One key aspect in which the Silverstone-based squad fell short is the development. They failed to improve the performance of the car throughout the season despite introducing numerous upgrades.

Meanwhile, the team's new team principal, Andy Cowell, talking to Martin's official website, addressed the issue and revealed why the upgrades failed in the second half of the 2024 season.

"There's no lack of effort across the team. In 2024 we won the World Championship with the most upgrades, but those upgrades didn't translate into lap times, and what everyone wants in this business is to get lap times," Cowell said (via Motorsport.com).

"That doesn't mean we have to get it right every time. I've seen statistics that show that in research and development environments, a 20% success rate is high. If we get 20% success, that's fine, but the difference is that it has to happen at the AMR Technology Campus and not on the track," he added.

Andy Cowell will be replacing Mike Krack as the team principal of Aston Martin from the 2025 F1 season. Krack joined the team in 2022, but after three underwhelming seasons, he voluntarily stepped down from this role, leading to Cowell's promotion.

Meanwhile, the Astons have signed celebrated engineer Adrian Newey into a long-term deal. Newey will leave Red Bull Racing after the first quarter of the 2025 season, marking the end of his two-decade association with the energy drink-based squad.

---

Lawrence Stroll's vision shapes into reality as Aston Martin shares a picture of the factory

Aston Martin owner, Lawrence Stroll (Image Source: Getty)

Lawrence Stroll, the billionaire businessman, took over the control of Aston Martin and vowed to make it a championship-caliber team. The first step towards that cause was to build a new factory with the latest and updated technology. Stroll invested in the factory, which has been set up in Silverstone.

Recently, the team shared pictures of the factory's progress on social media. The new factory will have its personalized wind tunnel. This comes after Lawrence Stroll onboarded veteran engineer Adrian Newey.

He has decades of experience in design engineering and is touted as the backbone of Red Bull's success and dominance in the Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen era. Hence, with Newey on board, Lawrence Stroll's vision is to make Aston Martin strong enough to contest for the championship.