Adrian Newey has been left unimpressed with Aston Martin’s simulator facilities since joining from Red Bull.
The F1 technical guru is hoping to elevate the team back among the sport’s best. However, one of his first aims will be bringing the driver in the loop simulator back in line with what the team’s actual drivers experience on the track.
Newey said in Monaco: “I think it is fair to say that some of our tools are weak, particularly the driver in the loop simulator.
“It needs a lot of work because it’s not correlating at all at the moment, which is a fundamental research tool. Not having that is a limitation.
“But we’ve just got to work around it in the meantime and then sort out a plan to get it to where it needs to be. But that’s probably a two-year project in truth.”
“It is a handicap, but difficult to say how much. Driver in the loop simulators are used in two ways. One as a research tool, when you’re looking at how you’re going to design the following year’s car, and how you’re going to put all the tools together to better model it.
“Then the other is how you develop the set-up of the car, typically, especially for given race weekends.
“So we’re going to be a bit blind on that for some time. We have just got to try to use experience and best judgement. How successful that will be, time will tell.”
