Vandoorne on Aston Martin: ‘The conversation about coffee makers is important’

This week Stoffel Vandoorne was a guest in Beyond the Gridpodcast. As in 2023, Vandoorne is also a reserve and test driver for Aston Martin this season, along with Felipe Drugovich. The British racing team has had a great start to the season. Vandoorne describes the state of affairs in British sports.

In 2023, Fernando Alonso joined the team and the team eventually finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship. Vandoorne believes the British racing team can continue last year’s high performance this season. “The atmosphere is good,” the Belgian says.

Better car than last year

According to Vandoorne, Aston Martin took a new route at the start of the 2023 season. ‘We have made great progress and gained many platforms. That was perhaps unexpected. Alonso also joined the team. It was clearly the beginning of a new project and it turned out well, after that many new people joined the team. I can say 2024 is a continuation of that.”

Vandoorne believes that the team’s success cannot be taken for granted. “We hope we can build a base (for 2023, ed.), fight for the podium, and try to win the first victory. The first few races this year have already shown that the field is very small. A tenth or two tenths can already make a big difference, ” says the former F1 driver.

According to Vandoorne, the car that Aston Martin is driving this year feels better than last year. ‘The car feels better than last year. Everything feels good. There is more reduce power, it brakes better, corners better. But hey, so is everyone. Everyone is improving. It’s that kind of continuous development that you have to keep going (as a team, editor.).”

The importance of the simulator

Since the number of options for testing a car is very limited these days, the simulator has come to play a major role within the team. ‘After driving a car in the Spa, it is very important to go back to the simulator and compare the real car with the simulator. Every lap or every kilometer you can drive in the car is very valuable to us.’

“A lot has changed in the head office,” says Vandoorne. ‘New campus, new buildings, the team needed that. The team has grown tremendously over the past few years. I think we started with about 300 people, now it’s over 700. So we’ve become too big for the building, but with the new campus everyone is under one roof. Everyone is close to their department.’

According to Vandoorne, it’s the passing interaction that’s good for the team. ‘It’s the conversation you have with the coffee maker. When it happens you feel more comfortable. You name things and suddenly you understand things that can also be beneficial to the car. So I think moments like that are very important for the team.”

Updates should bring progress

Although Vandoorne is very pleased with this season’s Aston Martin, he still thinks that some upgrades could take the car to the next level. ‘What’s different about this car is that the base of the car gives us more flexibility to develop it further throughout the season. Hopefully we can get a few updates this season and if possible make a big step up from last year. Then we also came up with a few updates, but they didn’t really work. Hopefully the updates will go smoothly this year game changer it is.’