Aston Martin harnessing Mercedes quality as jigsaw nears completion

Aston Martin technical director Dan Fallows has revealed how the team will measure its new wind tunnel against that of Mercedes during the commissioning process.

The Silverstone-based outfit is awaiting the completion of its new state-of-the-art campus that takes in a factory for car build, wind tunnel for aerodynamic testing and also a space for worker welfare, including an on-site gym amongst other facilities.

The wind tunnel, however, is the key addition for the team during the upscaling, with the correlation between the compound and the race track critical for development.

The importance of a wind tunnel has been further highlighted by McLaren developing its own facility at its Woking base.

Asked how long it would take for the wind tunnel to be online, speaking to selected media including GPFans, Fallows said: "Inevitably when you build the wind tunnel, you have to go through a commissioning process.

"That's really just to determine that it's going to give you the numbers that you expect to see.

"Obviously, we are fortunate enough to be able to be testing in the Mercedes wind tunnel, which is a very high-quality facility.

"So we need to make sure that our new facility is giving results that are consistent with those.

"That does take a certain amount of time, but there are things that we can do to speed up that process and obviously, the target is to get in there as soon as we possibly can."

Additional reporting by Ewan Gale