Slow Car Led To Dan Fallows’ Aston Exit

Dan Fallows lost his job at Aston Martin because of the team’s performance struggles, according to Ralf Schumacher.

Fallows only started work as the Silverstone-based team’s technical director in 2022, having been poached from the ultra-successful Red Bull.

Aston Martin had a meteoric start to the 2023 season, but car development then stalled. The team also started quite strongly this year, but Fernando Alonso now thinks Aston Martin has one of the slowest cars of all.

“He (Fallows) had a lot of influence on the car and it looked like a rocket at the beginning of the season,” former F1 driver Schumacher told formel1.de.

1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve picked up the theme in conversation with Grosvenor Sport: “It is no surprise that Dan Fallows is leaving Aston Martin, if you look at the development of that car.

“It just gets worse and worse,” he said.

Fallows is being moved to a non-F1 role elsewhere in the Aston Martin group, with his departure also linked to the arrival next year of Adrian Newey.

Ralf Schumacher said: “The difference between Adrian Newey and many others is his ability to solve problems. Newey seems incredible at that, while Fallows didn’t succeed.

“Fallows left Red Bull to claim this better role, but I can imagine that it was not a good fit between him and Aston Martin. And now Adrian is arriving.”

Schumacher admits he isn’t sure if Newey, who worked closely with Fallows at Red Bull, asked for his former colleague to be ousted.

“I don’t know what happened,” said the German, “but I will ask Adrian when I see him next.” Indeed, Schumacher and Newey both often spend time in South Africa along with Eddie Jordan.

Villeneuve can imagine that Newey was involved in Fallows’ demotion.

“Newey will start making decisions now,” he said. “Lawrence Stroll is putting a lot of money into the project, and he wants results and perfection, which is what Formula 1 is all about.

“If you’re not good enough, you’re pushed aside. And it used to happen much faster than it does now. People stay in Formula 1 much longer now – it’s like a private club.”