'No more excuses': Game-changing Aston Martin F1 factory rises from Silverstone mud

The new Aston facility has been tuned to the requirements of the cost cap, and thus an ideal headcount of around 650-700. The problem with all F1 facilities built in previous decades was that staff numbers kept outgrowing the original capacity.

The whole exercise is being overseen by project manager Guy Austin. Previously with construction consultancy Ridge Partners, and now working directly with Aston, he has long been known as the number one choice for anyone in the UK motor sport industry with a building project.

He was involved in the creation of the original Jordan factory, and has subsequently undertaken projects for clients such as Stewart/Red Bull, BAR/Honda/Mercedes, Benetton/Renault, TWR/Arrows, Lola, Prodrive and Xtrac. Aston will be the seventh wind tunnel that he’s overseen.

He reports to Stroll and Aston Martin Performance Technology boss Martin Whitmarsh, who was a key player at McLaren when the MTC was created, and thus knows its strengths and weaknesses well.

One new Aston Martin factory, three new buildings

When Austin came on board the plan was to create one building but, including the wind tunnel, it’s now become a much bigger three-stage project.

“He’s just so excited by what he sees and how he sees it coming on,” he says of the always demanding Stroll. “He can’t wait for the team to get in here. It is a game-changer for the team, it’s going to be amazing.

“Because of that there’s a lot of impatience from senior management to get us in here, so that we can work much more effectively than we’re working at the moment. I guess that’s the most pressure I feel, to keep pushing things along, to make sure that we’re on programme.”

The new main building, closest to the Dadford Road and thus the circuit, is 160m long. It houses the race team, design, manufacturing and all the admin departments such as commercial, legal and HR. It already has its roof on and is in the process of being kitted out internally. The schedule calls for the move to be made over a weekend next May — in addition to the three grands prix that month.

At the far end of the site is the wind tunnel, which is a bare frame at the moment but expected to be operational in the spring of 2024 – until then the team will continue to rent time in the Mercedes facility in nearby Brackley.

Demolishing the remnants of Jordan F1 building

The rear of the current factory juts between the two buildings outlined above. When the May 2023 move is completed, it will be demolished, taking with it three decades of history. Aston did look at repurposing it, but decided that it wouldn’t be practical to convert.

In that space work will then start on the third phase of the project, a building that connects the main facility to the wind tunnel via the aforementioned bridges, and which will house catering, an events space, a gym, the eSports team and the simulator.

“Disruption kills an F1 team, especially when you look at the race schedule today”

“I asked, ‘What’s happening with this?’” says Austin of his original factory. “Do you really want a new building here and new building there, and this 30-year-old thing in the middle? What are you going to do with it? It’s not going to look nice, it’s going to need a lot of work done to it.

“You can imagine, when we move all the dust extractors and everything it’s going to be like a Swiss cheese with the number of holes in it. Apart from anything else, the cladding is 30 years old, the insulation is 30 years old, it’s actually not really fit for purpose.

“When I did that for Eddie [Jordan] it was properly on a budget, Eddie was coming out of F3000. All sorts of games were played to get in there!”

Crucially there will be no shortage on the site of the one thing that became a major headache for all F1 teams as they expanded over recent decades, namely car parking.

It’s partly because of all that hardstanding that there will be ponds as part of the limited landscaping around the buildings. They are not for show, and are part of the drainage system that the rules require when you build on a green field site. There are also trees being planted and a wild meadow at the back of the site.

Moving in, mid-F1 season

Moving an F1 team, even if it’s just going next door, is a huge job – especially as it’s being undertaken during the racing season.

“Disruption kills an F1 team, kills any business actually, especially when you look at the race schedule today,” says Austin. “We can’t have our autoclaves out of commission. So two new autoclaves go in here, as soon as they’re in here and commissioned, the two older ones go away to get refurbished, and then they get brought back in. We get a new five-axis machine, new machines for the machine shop, they get delivered straight here. We’re going to have a huge furniture delivery.

“So all of those things are going to be coordinated together. It’s a really tricky thing to do. So I guess that’s our main worry at the moment, we’re feeling the pressure on the time, but also the move plan, to make sure that we don’t disrupt the team in what we’re doing with the move.”

So what will the new facility do for the team’s performance? It goes without saying that once fully correlated, a brand new on-site wind tunnel will represent a huge step forward. But simply having everyone at the heart of the design process in one big room will make a difference to the dynamic.

“I think it’ll change it significantly,” says technical director Dan Fallows. “We’ve got this small factory here, we have these modular buildings, which you’ve probably seen to the side, where we have some people who are not necessarily designing parts of the car at the moment, but they are very connected to our design process. And having them not in the same room just makes it slightly more difficult to communicate with them.

“And I’ve been in a big open plan office before, with the ability to be able to walk around and talk to people very easily. And it makes a huge difference in terms of those interactions. And particularly the sort of serendipitous interactions where you can have a chat with somebody about one thing, and go on to talk about a lot of other things.

“And they often end up being the most creative conversations. That’s what we’re trying to try to build really.”

Fallows also highlights the importance of the last building to be tackled, which is where staff can meet, eat, and exercise. This is after all a sport about people.

“Building this team is a journey,” he says. “And each of these things are kind of milestones in that journey. They all kind of contribute to our ability to operate at the level we want to operate at. The last phase of it, building three, which is going to be the more the kind of employee experience, the wellness side of things, and the gym, I think it’s almost as important as the initial stages.

“I think demonstrating that we are going that way, that we are looking at these things, is almost part of the solution itself, because what engages people is knowing that we are thinking about them, and we want them to operate at a good level. We also want them to feel like they’re supported and part of a team that they want to be part of.”