Future
Inside the new Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team factory
by Samarth Kanal
12min read
The newest factory in Formula 1 is almost complete. Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team is about to reap the rewards of its expanded headquarters, located just across the road from Britain’s Silverstone Circuit.
Partner article
The Aramco and Aston Martin Racing strategic partnership
Aston Martin’s first participation in F1 was short-lived, having begun in 1959 and ceased by the end of 1960.
But after taking over the Racing Point F1 Team, Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll acquired a stake in Aston Martin - and the marque announced a fully-fledged return to F1 in 2021 after 61 years away.
This was ‘Team Silverstone’, with roots stretching back to the Jordan F1 Team. Aston Martin was using a factory that was built by Jordan in 1991 and then used by Midland, Spyker, Force India, and Racing Point - spawning cars that won a handful of grands prix.
That was one of our biggest struggles: to remove the shackles, literally think ‘utopia’
Tom McCullough
, Ex-performance director, Aston Martin Aramco
Heinz Harald-Frentzen on his way to victory in the 1999 French Grand Prix. Cars built by ‘Team Silverstone’ won five races, most recently in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix
Stroll wanted much more. He wanted his team to compete with the best in F1. It was already expanding its workforce, and with that expansion came the need to move to bigger and better headquarters.
So, in 2023, Aston began to demolish the old Jordan factory and move staff into the first building of its new £200 million headquarters - what the team calls the Aston Martin Racing Technical Campus (AMRTC).
“I think Lawrence was pretty clear when he bought the team,” says Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team's then-performance director Tom McCullough. “He said: ‘I want the best… I want you to go and get what everybody else is going to want.”
McCullough was tasked with sourcing the ideal F1 simulator. He likens the process to creating a “utopia” - a no-expense-spared wishlist.
“Ultimately, Lawrence just said, ‘Tell me what it's going to cost. We will invest in the facilities because this is the time now, for the future’. And he has absolutely stuck to that.
“And actually, that was one of our biggest struggles: to remove the shackles, literally think ‘utopia’. What if money was no object, what would you do? Then we'll be sensible.”
Here’s how, and why, the Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team constructed the newest and one of the most technologically advanced headquarters in F1.
Renders showing plans for the Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team factory, including a helipad, the running track, and three buildings connected by bridges
The timeline and buildings that make up the new factory
The old Jordan factory, which was utilised along with temporary buildings until mid-2023, was only around 315 square metres in size. Meanwhile, Red Bull’s powertrain factory alone covers 400 square metres and Mercedes’s F1 factory in Brackley, Oxfordshire, has a footprint of 60,000 square metres.
Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team’s new factory spans 37,000 square metres over three buildings that will house around 1,000 employees.
The team inaugurated building one in some style in July 2023, when driver Lance Stroll took the cockpit of an F1 car and dashed along the 160-metre-long ‘Street’ - the main corridor on the ground floor of the building where machine shops, composites team, fabrications team, electronics team, and the race shop are located.
The ‘Street’ on the ground floor of building one in the Aston Martin F1 factory
Huge autoclaves, ovens where carbon fibre is ‘baked’ with resin, and space for the F1 car to be started up and tested ahead of events, make up the ground floor of building one.
On the first floor are meeting rooms and offices for some engineering staff, marketing, and communications. The all-important control room (dubbed ‘Mission Control’ by the team) is also in building one. This is where strategists and engineers sit during the race weekend to provide remote support to trackside staff and the drivers themselves.
Bridges connect the three buildings for staff to transition areas quickly.
Inside one of the bridges connecting buildings at the Aston Martin F1 factory
“It's made a dramatic difference to the dynamic within the team,” says project manager Guy Austin of the bridges.
“What's really interesting is that it forces people to make contact and communicate. It's very difficult to walk past somebody in that constrained space and not actually acknowledge they're there. So, it's really interesting to see how people, as they're moving around the building, the campus now, are actually acknowledging each other and speaking.”
Just after building one was completed, the foundations of the second building were laid. This building was completed by July 2024, and it took a couple more months for staff to move in - just in time for the team to announce the acquisition of legendary designer Adrian Newey in September 2024.
Part of what attracted Newey to the team was the new factory itself.
The second building houses a creative studio, an events space and the driver simulator - where drivers can practise and engineers can hone set-ups on virtual renditions of real-world circuits.
A far cry from the former temporary canteen located in the parking lot, the staff dining area is located in building two. It can feed a third of the staff at one time. And those calories can be worked off in the nearby fitness centre.
Trucks can be driven right up to the race logistics area of building two to pick up cars and related kit, and send them abroad for races. Small touches, such as metal rollerballs on the floor, mean crates can be moved more easily than before.
One of the issues, of course, is that Formula 1 never stands still
Guy Austin
, project manager, Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team
The staff canteen can feed around 300 people - many more than the temporary canteen that was located in the parking lot during construction
Building three was completed in early 2024, with Aston Martin Performance Technologies using rapid 3D-printing and prototype facilities from January 2024. Aston Martin’s innovation department helped unveil the Valhalla supercar to the world in late 2024.
The other tools inside building three will be fully operational by the first quarter of 2025.
The third building includes the model shop, where the windtunnel models are created, with the windtunnel and its control room right next door. With F1’s Aerodynamic Testing Regulations (ATR) limiting the use of windtunnel time, this layout saves crucial time.
“We are pretty much finished,” said Austin in October 2024. “We will be properly done by the end of the first week in November, but the nature of construction contracts is that there's a thing called the defects liability period.
“Contractors are responsible for defects in materials and workmanship for a year after the completion.”
Furthermore, the team’s decision to build its own gearbox from 2026 alongside the arrival of engine supplier Honda meant it had to re-arrange the first building to accommodate staff and allow the Honda staff to work in building three.
“One of the issues, of course, is that Formula 1 never stands still,” explains Austin.
“When we planned building one, we didn't know we were going to have to do our own gearbox for 2026. Luckily, Martin [Whitmarsh, former Aston Martin group CEO] and I talked about how things are going to change, and we left some spare space in the original building.”
Former team principal Mike Krack also credits Whitmarsh for his role in the factory’s design and completion.
“Martin was really on it, in terms of infrastructure projects, and keeping to deadlines, and keeping to the financial framework. And it's fantastic, the way he has done that.
“Not many people would have achieved this without delays. I think Lawrence [Stroll] is grateful that it has not exceeded the financial frame, but, timing-wise, it has been spot on.”
Adrian Newey (L) with Lawrence Stroll (R) at the team’s announcement event at its factory in September 2024
Quick wins - the short-term gains of the new F1 factory
Although Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team is yet to fully reap the rewards of its new factory and become the championship contender its staff and owner aspire to, the team is already enjoying some gains from its new facilities.
McCullough, who has been at the Silverstone team since its Force India days, recalls how different life in the old factory was.
“I suppose we've gone from what was the smallest, pokiest - nearly dysfunctional, as a harsh word - several industrial units. It was just messy, while now it just is so... liberating,” says McCullough.
He says “ease of access” is the most notable change given by the new factory, while huge windows and bigger rooms give people much more breathing room, even increasing morale.
“Everything’s to hand and people just seem happy as well. As you walk around, people, whether you're working in sub-assembly, whether you're working in the machine shop, wherever you're working, you've got a much nicer working environment.
Natural light means nearly every room in the factory is a pleasant place to work - and a step up from the former headquarters
“In the fabrication shop - you used to have two, three people in a different industrial state, in a real makeshift [space]. It was a real Eddie Jordan Racing-style fabrication shop; now you walk in, they've got all the kit, just a nice environment to work in, you know.”
McCullough adds that the “makeshift” nature of the old factory is no longer, as staff now have an organised, clean, and safe space to work.
“People are excited and proud. You really feel that walking around, it doesn’t matter where you are.”
Krack uses the example of the model shop, located in building three next to the windtunnel, to illustrate just how different working conditions are in the new factory.
“In the model shop they were in Brackley for many decades - and without windows. Without windows to do the work,” stresses the team principal.
“You put them in a place where everything is so much nicer, so much bigger, so much easier, and they [thrive] in that. You go in there and you see the people smile. They say, ‘it was really worth all these hard years to now have all these facilities here, and these possibilities’.”
We’d outgrown the infrastructure of the factory. We even cut extra doorways in.
Ben Fitzgerald
, operations director, Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team
The outside of building two of the Aston Martin F1 factory, where the new simulator is located
Ben Fitzgerald, the team’s operations director, explains that “the growth in people involved in ideas has massively increased”.
Fitzgerald’s role is to maximise the use of the team’s expenditure and maximise its ability to manufacture components that improve performance on track.
“Your requirement is to deliver the best product for the least cost in the shortest amount of time,” he summarises.
He says that the Aston Martin F1 Team previously had staff spread out around Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, and even Wales - where part of Aston Martin’s road car business is based. The new factory brings them together to aid collaboration and efficiency.
Fitzgerald recalls that the old Jordan factory was much smaller and, therefore, it took less time to move between departments - but there was a big caveat.
The fitness centre at Aston Martin’s new F1 headquarters
“The original Jordan building was quite a reasonable solution to what the team required at that point in time,” he explains.
“We’d outgrown the old factory. The movement in the old factory was very inefficient because doorways weren't suitable; access was not suitable. We’d outgrown the infrastructure of the factory. We even cut extra doorways in. It’d become very organic in its growth,” he says.
Now, parts can be produced as soon as they need to be without having to account for whether they will fit through a doorway, or whether it’ll take too long to move them from one part of the building to another.
By producing more parts in-house, the team is also saving money.
Fitzgerald estimates that around 100,000 components that made it to the racetrack were made in-house in 2022. That was doubled in 2023, and that proportion increased by around 40% in 2024.
“Strategically, that's why we built the campus. We wanted the capability to produce performance parts in our own factory, rather than be reliant on external supply chains,” concludes Fitzgerald.
Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team's former team principal Mike Krack (L) and ex-performance director Tom McCullough (R)
McCullough says that efficiency improvements are already being felt.
“I used to have to go across the road to an industrial estate to the old simulator. Now I just go downstairs and it's there. If I'm wanting to just pop in to see how it's going or to discuss some stuff… everything's just so easy, you know?”
Of course, as Austin alluded to earlier, F1 never stands still. There’s still plenty of optimisation to come.
Krack says the process of tweaking where departments and personnel are located is “never-ending”.
“I think this will be a step-by-step approach… the simulator people, why should they be sitting here? At one point they will say, ‘it would be much better if we are all there’.
“But then all the aero guys, they are quite far from the windtunnel… who needs to sit how close?”
Krack explains, however, that optimisation isn’t just about “who talks to whom at what time”, but about how offices are structured. That’s why some personnel who began working in the first building might now be closer to the windtunnel, or working closer to the simulator.
The running track outside Aston Martin’s new F1 factory, with wildflowers at its centre
Environmental and sustainability achievements
Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 team has put sustainability at the forefront of its planning and construction efforts.
In October 2022, the team was awarded Three-Star Environmental Accreditation by the FIA, the highest level achievable - in part because of its efforts surrounding the new factory. Furthermore, it has achieved numerous standards adhering to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Those include ISO 50001, concerning energy consumption and efficiency; ISO 14064, regarding greenhouse gas emissions; and ISO 14001, surrounding environmental management systems.
Austin points to the extensive use of solar panels that generate around one-and-a-half megawatts of power. The solar panels aren’t enough to run the windtunnel, but Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team says the solar panels are sufficient to have powered the previous factory in its entirety - and more could even be added in the future, if required.
The campus includes various other design features that represent an annual carbon footprint reduction of 278 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The team planted more than 72,000 square metres of wild meadow, more than 30,000 shrubs and plants and more than 1,5000 native trees.
Team owner Lawrence Stroll said sustainability was one of the team’s goals alongside extracting more performance on track
Cycling, public transport and electric charging points have been emphasised for sustainable commuting.
Employee wellbeing has also been prioritised, with extensive natural lighting throughout the buildings, the aforementioned employee gym and dining area, plus exercise tracks around the factory.
Furthermore, the team has included numerous recycling facilities around the buildings and implemented methods to manage rainwater collection and reuse.
“Our new AMR Technology Campus is being built around our people. It will make designing, constructing and operating race-winning Formula 1 cars better, and it is also the most sustainable campus the sport has ever seen,” said Lawrence Stroll in 2022.
This is not Force India or Racing Point any more, and this is not an underdog project
Mike Krack
, former team principal, Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team
Is this the final piece of the puzzle?
The endgame here is for the Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team to fight for the Formula 1 constructors’ and drivers’ championships. Maybe not in 2025 - the final year of this specific ground-effect era of regulations - but perhaps in 2026 when a sweeping set of new technical regulations comes into play.
In 2023, we saw glimpses of promise from the team as it scored eight podiums with the AMR23 - but lost out on fourth place in the championship to a fast-developing McLaren. McLaren then went on to win the 2024 F1 constructors’ championship while Aston Martin had to settle for fifth in the championship once again.
Team boss Krack makes no excuses for his team’s performance over the last couple of seasons.
“This is not Force India or Racing Point any more, and this is not an underdog project. This is not about surviving or participating, this is to get to the front. And that's the game changing part of it. And that is something that we have to grow into.
“We are not there yet. You can tell. You see how… we are not developing at the pace of others, or we have developed not in the right direction, and it takes us time to get out of it. In the future, we cannot do that.
“You see, for example, we were on level with Mercedes at the beginning of [2024]; they have won four or five races. You see Red Bull was in trouble; they manoeuvred themselves out quickly.
“You see Ferrari was in trouble with the Barcelona upgrade, and they fixed it quickly. And we are not at that pace. We have not [got] this pace of reaction yet. And there you see that there are still a lot of things to put in place.”
Trophies and memorabilia displayed in the Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 team factory. As of the end of 2024, the team’s last F1 podium finish was achieved in Brazil in 2023
Krack says the transition to the new factory is complicated, but “you must not use it as an excuse, especially as it is not a worse facility,”. He explains that “everything should be much easier and should be better.
“So, you will not hear me, at least, [say] ‘this counts as an excuse for poor performance’.”
Krack adds: “We have everything in three months' time… And there is no reason not to perform. If we don't perform, it's because we haven’t done a good enough job. Not because we have a facility that is not good enough or a windtunnel or a simulator.”
The ingredients are almost in place, and with the new regulations in mind, this factory has been delivered at perhaps the perfect time for the Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team.
In September 2024, the F1 team announced a technical collaboration agreement signed with representatives from Aramco, Honda and Valvoline Global Operations.
Aramco will deliver advanced fuels to the team, Honda will develop a new power unit, and Valvoline will provide lubricants for the power unit.
With Honda supplying engines, Aston Martin will develop its own gearbox in-house, no longer relying on Mercedes.
L to R: Aramco executive vice president of products and customers Yasser Mufti, Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team executive chairman Lawrence Stroll, Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe, Valvoline Global CEO Jamal Muashsher
The team has recruited an accomplished technical team including former Red Bull design guru Newey as managing technical partner, ex-Ferrari aerodynamicist Enrico Cardile as chief technical officer, ex-Mercedes engine director Andy Cowell as group chief executive officer, and former Renault technical head Bob Bell as technical executive director.
This might be the ‘dream team’ - but Krack says the competition is only going to get tougher from 2026. Particularly with Cadillac and Audi joining the fray.
“I always say this is the Champions League of motorsport. If you want to win the Champions League, you have to be on it. Because your opponents are on it as well. And it counts for every little aspect. And as soon as you become complacent in one area - you fall back, you have no chance.
“The times of a bad team are long gone. And even the ones that have zero points, they're not a bad team. The level is incredibly high. We will see it in 2026, how high the level is.”
If Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team’s new headquarters are anything to go by, the level in F1 is already higher than it’s ever been.