New Aston Martin technical boss: 'Max and Fernando look alike'

After a mandatory break, Dan Fallows is fully at work as Aston Martin's technical director. After many years at Red Bull Racing, he is now building the AMR23, the first car for which he is ultimately responsible.

Fallows does not usually give many interviews. He prefers to remain anonymous, away from the spotlight. But his new job will undoubtedly draw more attention to his work. Fallows must ensure that Aston Martin does have a competitive car next season in which the demanding Fernando Alonso can shine.

The making of the car takes into account the driving style of the Spaniard, someone Fallows does not know well at this stage. "He has reputation for very much driving by feel – he really likes to feel the limits of the car" Fallows tells on Aston Martin F1's website. "If that's the case, we need to make sure that the platform of the car is predictable, stable, all the things that we try to achieve with a car anyway, but it's absolutely amplified with someone like Fernando."

At Red Bull, Fallows worked with Max Verstappen. A driver who always drives at or slightly above the car's limit. According to Fallows, with such a driver it is important that the car is stable at the limit. "My understanding is that Fernando will be very similar. There are drivers, like Fernando and Max, who drive these high-speed, high-downforce Formula One cars like go-karts. It seems absolutely extraordinary to me that they can treat a car as sophisticated and as fast as a Formula One car in the same way as they do a go-kart, but they do. And, if that's how they drive, it's up to us to give them a car that they can drive like a go-kart."