Aston Martin F1 boss on recruiting people from other teams: "There is always something you can learn that other teams are doing"

Aston Martin technical director Dan Fallows feels that hiring members from other teams helps them in understanding what their rivals are doing, which will aid them in learning and getting better.

The Silverstone-based team has held an extensive recruitment drive in the last few years where multiple members from other teams, including Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Ferrari, have joined it.

When questioned about what benefits Aston Martin gain by hiring members who have worked with other teams, Fallows stated that it helps them learn about the strengths of their rivals, which can help them achieve the maximum possible growth. He told Motorsport.com:

"We’re keen to learn from what other people do well. And it’s something I’ve always found, when you recruit people there is always something you can learn that other teams are doing, but also we’ve been fortunate enough to recruit some very talented and experienced people who have their own ideas about what makes a car go fast. The nice thing is they’ve come into this environment very open-minded, very willing to forge their own way of doing things using that experience, that collective experience, to go our own way.”

Using himself as an example, Fallows, who has worked with Red Bull previously, said:

"There’s a number of reasons why Red Bull are good. They’ve managed, over a period of years, to iron out issues in every aspect of the team, whether that be the race team, the manufacturing facilities, the design office, and a lot of building that kind of success is making sure there are no areas where you have substantial weaknesses. In many ways, I’m very proud that I was part of that on the engineering side."

He added:

"They’re an incredibly strong team, and I think that I do have that experience of what it means to win races and win championships. I think the key message is that you have to make sure that in every aspect of what you’re doing there are no holes, no things that you’re doing that can be compromising your performance as you go along.”

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Aston Martin should not try to replicate what others are doing, believes Dan Fallows

Dan Fallows, however, stressed that Aston Martin needed to make sure that it did not try to replicate what teams like Ferrari, Red Bull or Mercedes were doing. Instead, they need to carve their own path.

The Aston Martin technical director said:

“The important thing for us is to make sure we don’t just replicate what our competitors do. We don’t believe that is going to help us overtake the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari. So we have to develop our own way of doing things."

He added:

"That does take time, but we’ve got a hugely ambitious group of people, and one of the things about seeing the new factory come together is it demonstrates this momentum, this wish to kind of accelerate the process of moving up the grid and getting into a winning situation. And I think that’s what’s really going to help us get there, this passion, this motivation and this belief we will get there eventually.”

With Fernando Alonso joining the team ahead of the 2023 season, Aston Martin will be hoping to take the next step in their quest to become one of the F1 grid's best teams.