Why Aston Martin have hope for these regulations despite starting "on the backfoot"
The pre-season exposed clear weaknesses in Aston Martin's 2026 package, leaving them “on the backfoot” heading into what was planned as a pivotal regulation set for their journey to the front.
The Silverstone-based team have had their sights set on this 2026 overhaul for years - the Honda deal was secured and announced back in 2023, the technology campus build began even before then, and Aramco, as a key partner in the switch to fully sustainable fuels, have been their strategic/title partner since 2022.
In fact, it’s that clear, purposeful investment and what Newey has since called a “triangular relationship” between Honda, Aramco/Valvoline and the team that attracted him to the project.
Although these technical partnerships were set up well in advance of the regulation shift, what was more delayed was Newey’s own arrival. With a start date of March 2nd 2025, as the window for aerodynamic testing of 2026 cars through CFD and the wind tunnel opened on January 1st 2025, Newey still wouldn’t be at Aston Martin for another two months.
While he’d been understanding the regulations and pondering the philosophy he felt the AMR26 should follow prior to joining, it meant their work in putting those plans into effect didn’t begin until early March, with the model only making it to their brand new wind tunnel when it came online in April.
And the knock-on effect of that late start is, in reality, what left Aston Martin arriving late to this pre-season…
A slow start in Spain
The team only got out on track with the AMR26 in the penultimate hour of the fourth day of the five day shakedown in Barcelona, at which point the gremlins began to creep in from another side - the power unit.
Lance Stroll’s run was cut short by “slightly abnormal data”, in Honda’s own words, which prompted them to take a “precautionary measure” and stop the car on track - concluding its debut after just five laps. With only a day left to establish systems, check reliability and aim to gather mileage before the pack up and move to Bahrain had to begin, they were left limited to 61 laps with Alonso behind the wheel - leaving their shakedown total at just 66.
Disaster in the desert…
Although six full days in Bahrain offered an opportunity for Aston Martin to make up for lost time in Barcelona, things quickly went from bad to worse.
