Today's press conference with Andrew Shovlin, Xevi Pujolar, Pierre Wache and Dan Fallows.

Dan, with you, if we could. You've just been back-to-backing old parts with new parts in FP1. What did you learn?
Dan Fallows: Well, we learned that it's extremely hot and very busy, which is kind of what we were expecting coming into this weekend. But yeah, we've done a comparison across cars with some new parts. We're very much focused on trying to sort of get a better balance, a more consistent car with this one, so it's all about data gathering at this point, and then we really sort of go back, crunch the numbers, and see where we get to.

This is a very different layout, isn't it, compared to the last three tracks in particular that we've been to? It's very different temperatures. What does that mean for Aston Martin?
DF: Well, there's been certainly some tracks that suit us better than others. We saw that in Silverstone, for example, it sort of played to our strengths to some extent. Tracks like this, honestly, is not necessarily one of our strongest. So we go into the weekend trying to see what we can make of it, acknowledging that we have these limitations, but really trying to get those gains on the car, get those improvements in the balance characteristic and give the drivers what they want to be able to perform at either circuits like this or Silverstone.

Dan, can we talk a little bit more about those limitations? Because Fernando spoke yesterday about the car being unpredictable to drive, that he lacks confidence in it. Why is it proving so difficult to tame?
DF: These cars, with these regulations, they're very complicated ground effect cars. They're very sensitive to things like ride heights and ambient temperatures and tyres and everything else. And that does cause us a lot of issues in terms of where we want to add downforce or to add performance to the car. It's not as simple as just adding downforce and everything comes to you. There's always some kind of characteristic of the aerodynamic package which comes along with that. And it's just a question of making sure that as you dial up the performance, that you don't sort of introduce any of these either instabilities or characteristic changes. And I think we've seen that generally things tend to work the way we expect, up to a point, but then they're not always things that suit the driver or suit the characteristics of the car. So it's a constant sort of battle to try and improve the performance in both ways, really.

And are you confident that you can navigate your way out of the current issues in the remainder of 2024?
DF: That's absolutely the target. I mean, we are working absolutely flat out on this. I mean, the parts that we brought here this weekend have been the result of an enormous effort from the people back at base. They're really working. The lights really never go out at the technology campus at the moment. And it's a testament to the fact that everybody is hugely motivated in getting on top of these things. But obviously, you know, it's an ongoing process and we'll keep sticking at it until we've fixed our issues.

You mentioned the technology campus. There have been some high profile signings in recent weeks. Of course, Bob Bell joined earlier in the year, but now Andy Cowell is going to come on board. Enrico Cardile is going to come on board. When everyone is in position, Will the team have everything it needs to build a race-winning car?
DF: I think the thing for us is we're a team that's grown incredibly quickly and we're carrying on growing. And we can identify, as we get into a state which is closer to being able to challenge for race wins and championships, we can start to see as we're on that journey that there are gaps in our expertise or where certain people could bring something to us. And with the announcements of Andy Cowell recently and Enrico Cardile, these are people with a huge amount of experience. The fact that we're able to attract talent like that to the team just, I think, is a testament to just what an exciting project it is. And they can really see something and the potential in it, which is why we're excited to have them along.

Still room for someone called Adrian Newey?
DF: I mean, I worked with Adrian for a long time, as has my colleague next to me. You know, he's a great asset to any team. Who knows where he's going to end up.

Alright. Dan, thank you very much. Pierre, let's come to you now. The RB20 looks different here. What have you learned about it in FP1?
Pierre Wache: I think the cover of the engine is cool! We were able to do some laps. It's already a good sign. I think it's a long process to learn about the package for sure. P1 should not be enough to make a conclusion. But we learned that it's going in the right direction at the moment. We didn't see any black flag on the package. That is already a good aspect. And we will continue to learn during P2.

What about driver feedback? What was Max saying about the car?
PW: As you said, for Dan, you know, the layout is massively different compared to the last three races we've done. It's difficult to make a compare of it. But, you know, Max was... No surprise of what the issue is in terms of car balance, how to go quicker. It's not massively related to the package. It's more an overall issue with the temperature, how the tyre works and what the balance is. But at the moment, there's no black flag.

Pierre, the chasing pack is getting closer. How much rests on this upgrade being a good step forward?
PW: We will see. But yeah, it's clearly for us, you know, some part of the package was a plan for after shutdown and the people at the factory were able to push to make some aspect of it, for one car only. But, you know, it was a push from the factory to make it three weeks earlier. I think it's very important for us, yeah.

OK, look, a final one from me. Checo Pérez, just 15 points from the last six races. Why do you think he's been struggling so much in recent races?
PW: If I knew, I would fix it. But it's difficult to say. I think it's partly us, for sure. And it's what we have to try to help him to extract the potential of the car. I have some feedback from him. We have some feedback. We try to help him. And, you know, the point is not only reflecting to how he feels in the car. That is something that... Sometimes he's unlucky, you know, it's what happened in some quali that could affect the overall result of the race. But, yeah, I think we are trying to help him to have a better result for the next races before shutdown.

Does he lack confidence in the car?
PW: It's difficult to say, I'm not a driver, but It looks like the car response is not what he likes. That is something that we have to address on our side.

OK, thank you, Pierre. I'm sure there'll be more questions for you in a minute. Xevi, let's come to you. No talk of football. Now, you've got lots of new parts on your car as well this weekend. What have you learned during FP1?
Xevi Pujolar: Yeah, we've got quite a bit of a lot of parts with Valtteri this race weekend and for FP1 has been just getting some data. Everything at the moment looks within our expectations, but still is, as you said, it's early. Only one FP1 session, very hot conditions, so do some more work in FP2, but at the moment everything looks as expected so far.

And we're returning to the scene of a very strong qualifying performance by both cars last year, P5, P7. How confident are you that they can repeat that when we get to the business end of the weekend?
XP: Yeah, last year here, the one-timed lap was good, then we had some issues in the race, so, for sure, we want to be performing at the one-timed lap as well, but the main target is the race and to achieve the points. For some reason, last year, the performance was very strong at the one-timed lap, as we said, I think this year everything is changing, or from race to race, everything is changing quite a lot. So we have to see from FP1 now, we can say that lap times, yeah, we can be there in FP1, but that will change quite a lot through the weekend. So we just keep focused and we'll try to optimise the car. We've got different packages across the cars as well. So get the best of both of them and see what we can achieve in qualifying and in the race. That's the main target.

Xevi, can you tell us a little bit more about this car? Maybe reflect on the opening 12 races because you've yet to get any points on the board. What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? Why do you feel it hasn't happened yet for the team?
XP: Yeah, I think probably everything has been very close in terms of performance amongst teams. Maybe the performance is not too far away, but we struggled to consolidate with the results. At the beginning of the season, we were a bit better in terms of quali and race performance, but we had some other issues in terms of reliability with the pit stops and some other reliability issues. Once we fixed that, then maybe the competitors... It looks like the competitors moved one step further forwards in terms of performance, but everything remains very, very close. We're struggling more in, say, low- and medium-speed corners. we were about there in the high speed, struggling more towards the top teams but at one point even the midfield seemed to move more performance in the higher-speed corners and then we started to have a bit of issues as well with bouncing, drivers losing a bit of confidence. So, working with the car trying to find a configuration that is more suitable for the driving for the confidence and to extract more performance. And that's the aim of that package that we've got with Valtteri as well, to have a bit of a scope to develop for the second part of the season on that section.

Good luck with that. Thank you, Xevi. Shov, thank you for waiting. So you've had two consecutive wins. What chance making it three in a row here in Hungary?
Andrew Shovlin: Well, it's probably a bit of a long shot. Silverstone definitely suited the car. It's a more front-limited track, and it was cooler conditions. The thing where we've still got the kind of question mark on performance is rear-limited circuits in hot conditions. It's going to be very hot on Sunday. So that's what we're working on. But I wouldn't put us as favourites here.

So we're going to learn quite a lot about the car and its ultimate competitiveness here in Hungary.
AS: Yeah, I mean, it's a good circuit to test that. And when you're trying to focus on one area of performance, if that's rear overheating, the best place to learn and understand your issues is a circuit that exacerbates that problem, even if we'd prefer all of them be like Silverstone. But they're not, and it's a good place for us to work on that problem.

Check out our Friday gallery from the Hungaroring here.