Behind the scenes as Aston Martin's work on 'world class' new factory continues

A 'game-changer' and a 'world class' facility was how Aston Martin described their new F1 factory, due to welcome employees fully in May 2023 and, after a tour of the site last Friday, whilst obviously not fully finished, it's hard to disagree with that overview.

Aston Martin's ambition in Formula 1 is clear for all to see. Owner Lawrence Stroll has not been shy in pumping the finances into the team and saying they are on a five-year journey to be in the championship fight by the end of 2025, a huge statement of intent when you look at who they'll have to overhaul.

Indeed, after finishing in P7 in 2022, it's clear they're not quite yet where they want to be but progress over the second half of the last campaign was strong and keeping that momentum, whilst adding the brilliant Fernando Alonso and what will likely be the most impressive set of facilities in Formula 1 for 2023, could see them make a big step towards their goals next year.

Back on Friday, we were lucky enough to join a media tour of the factory site to start to get a feel of what the Silverstone-based team is going to be working out of, led by Project Manager Guy Austin (below.)

Guy Austin on the Aston Martin factory tour

Guy Austin leads the Aston Martin Silverstone factory tour

Austin is vastly experienced, having overseen multiple motorsport factory and wind tunnel builds, and this must be one of the most exciting, with three buildings set for the site; the main factory, an area for employees to use things like the gym or canteen and a wind tunnel, something Aston will be hugely pleased about with them currently using Mercedes'.

Having your own wind tunnel is huge for an F1 team, and Technical Director Dan Fallows, speaking later in the day, made no secret of how impressive and important it's going to be to Aston's progress:

"There's no doubt that it will be a world class facility. And having access to that 24/7, if required, is obviously very important. As we improve in our wind tunnel, runs availability that we have from the aerodynamic testing restrictions goes down. You know, clearly, we wouldn't be spending as much time in the tunnel.

"But having your own facility means you can do other experiments as well, which is invaluable. And it's something we don't necessarily have the luxury of doing at the moment when we're sharing the tunnel with another team."

The wind tunnel itself is set to come online in mid-2024 but 'building one' (on the left) - the structure we looked around on Friday - should be fully operational for a move in of employees over a weekend in May next year, with the fittings and furnishings set to start being introduced in the early stages of 2023.

It's a hugely impressive site even before all the neater touches have been put in place, though, with 'building one' being a vast space. On the ground floor will be sections dedicated to part building for the car whilst the first floor will have offices for the likes of Stroll, Martin Whitmarsh and the chief technical staff.

The requirement for an open-plan office was clear, too, and you can see that demonstrated, with light pouring in through huge windows and very little in the way of internal walls when moving around the site, particularly on the first floor.

Speaking after the tour, Fallows explained how that will improve the working dynamic for the team:

"I think [the working dynamic will] change significantly. We've got this small factory here [currently,] we have these modular buildings to the side where we have some people who are not necessarily designing parts of the car at the moment, but they are very connected to our design process. And having them not in the same room just makes it slightly more difficult to communicate with them.

Looking up from the ground floor of building one. Light streams in through the ceiling and windows, with the ground floor easily visible from the first floor

Aston Martin hope the open plan design of the factory will be a big boost to the team dynamic

Above: View from the ground floor up. Below: A demonstration of how open the building will be.

"I've been in a big open plan office before with the ability to be able to walk around and talk to people very easily. And it makes a huge difference in terms of those interactions. Those sort of serendipitous interactions where you can have a chat with somebody about one thing and go on to talk about a lot of other things - they often end up being the most creative conversations."

That is something that Aston Martin Team Principal, Mike Krack, would also buy into, with him subscribing to the idea that this new facility could be a game-changer for Aston moving forwards, as he spoke on Friday:

"The fact that you can talk to people without having to arrange meetings facilitates dialogue massively, compared to the remote locations that we have, where you either need to pick up the phone or organise something, and there is sometimes this is a natural barrier of more exchange.

"The other thing is also logistically, to bring stuff from left to right, or from A to B, it will be massively different and massively easier. From that point of view, I fully agree on using the term game-changer."