Simulations suggest ONE team could catch Red Bull in July

Aston Martin have experienced a stellar start to their campaign, in complete contrast to the 2022 season, where they languished towards the bottom of the F1 pecking order.

Fernando Alonso has led the team to six podium finishes, and has been the closest consistent match to Red Bull across most race weekends.

An upgrade package introduced at a rain affected Canadian Grand Prix, has without a doubt helped them to get closer to Red Bull over the distance of a race.

Having trailed Red Bull by just ten seconds at the end of the Canadian GP, despite having to sacrifice lap time to lift and coast, the race marked a significant improvement for a team that had fallen as low as fourth fastest in Spain.

Aston on the up

Apart from the race, there was little to no dry running throughout the course of the weekend in Canada, with teams having to guess which way was best to go on setup for the race.

According to Auto Motor und Sport, the Silverstone based outfit may be the best placed team to disrupt Red Bull's scintillating run of form.

"Apparently, the wind tunnel data and simulations are so good that there are people within the team who are already confident that the ARM23 will be at Red Bull's level when they optimize Canada's upgrade between Austria and Great Britain."

Max Verstappen is aware of the threat posed by Aston Martin, and knows how quickly they could catch Red Bull if they opt not to develop their car.

"At the moment, we are not worried, but other teams are pushing. They are carrying a lot of updates. This weekend, Aston Martin took a step forward, for sure," he said.

"We are still ahead, but we have to keep working, although I don't need to say it, we already know that and we are working on it. Things are coming."

With a week to go until the Austrian Grand Prix, will Aston Martin be able to extract enough from their car to fight for a maiden race win?

A feisty Fernando Alonso with nothing to lose is going to be a difficult proposition for Verstappen to deal with in front of a pumped Dutch crowd.

READ MORE: F1 Race Engineers: The stars of team radio with Hamilton, Verstappen and co

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