F1 EXPLAINS: How new F1 cars come to life – from sketches to reality

How do F1 teams design and build their cars for a new season, how long does it take, and how ‘new’ is a ‘new F1 car’?

F1 Explains – the official podcast which answers your questions about the sport – tackles these questions and more in the first episode of 2024.

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To find the answers, presenters Katie Osborne and Christian Hewgill spoke to Aston Martin Technical Director, Dan Fallows, who oversaw the creation of the team’s 2024 challenger.

He explained that work on the AMR24 started long before 2023 was over.

"Shortly after the season starts, you start to kick off the initial discussions," he said. "By the time we get to the shutdown in August time, the new car is being designed in earnest.

"It feels like you get going with the season and you’re already thinking about the next one, but in reality it takes that long to design and build a car so you have to start thinking about it that early."

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Fallows worked alongside Adrian Newey at Red Bull Racing before joining Aston Martin in 2022 and the first car he fully oversaw for the team scored eight podiums in 2023. He goes on tell F1 Explains about the challenge of continuing to upgrade the 2023 car, while also looking ahead to the following season.

Aston’s tech chief also details how new cars are tested and given the green light to race by the sport’s governing body, the FIA, and talks about the challenge of keeping the new car secret until the last possible moment.

Coming up on F1 Explains in 2024

The AMR24, and the other nine F1 cars for the new season, will soon be in Bahrain for pre-season testing and F1 Explains will go behind-the-scenes of the test in an episode released on Friday 23rd February, to explore why pre-season running is so important.

In the following weeks, McLaren star Oscar Piastri explains how Formula 2 helped prepare him for F1, and Kick Sauber duo Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu talk teammate relationships.

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F1 Academy Managing Director Susie Wolff explains everything you need to know about the 2024 season in an episode that also features Williams Driver Academy and ART rookie, Lia Block.

You can send a question about any F1 topic to F1Explains@F1.com. The podcast team will find the best person in the paddock to give the answer.

All episodes of F1 Explains are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all other major podcast apps. New episodes are released every Friday.

To catch the first episode of F1 Explains in 2024 tap the audio player above or click here to listen on your preferred platform.