Adrian Newey, head of Aston Martin, remained optimistic about the team’s performance even in the face of the great difficulties faced at the start of the 2026 Formula 1 season. The Silverstone team arrives at the Australian GP with limited mileage after a challenging pre-season period, marked by strong vibrations from the Honda engine that, in some cases, even put the drivers’ health at risk.
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“On the chassis side, it is well known that we faced a very condensed period of development,” Newey told the press in Melbourne. “We didn’t put a model in the wind tunnel until mid-April last year, so we were quite far behind the competitors. That’s just a fact of life.”
Despite the delay, the renowned British designer believes that Aston Martin has managed to establish a solid foundation: “What we tried to focus on was having a good and solid architectural package. By architectural package, I mean the parts that we cannot easily change during the season. We achieved that. I look at our package and I don’t feel like we’ve missed anything in particular,” he said.
Newey highlighted that the car still has enormous potential for evolution: “I believe the car has enormous and tremendous development potential. It will take a few races to fully realize that potential, because a fairly aggressive development plan is underway,” he added.
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The Briton acknowledged that, at the moment, Aston Martin is still well behind the leaders, possibly occupying fifth position among the teams, but reinforced that the goal is to get closer to the front throughout the season: “Here in Melbourne we are a bit behind the leaders. I would probably say we are the fifth best team. It’s not where we want to be, but with the potential to be further ahead at some point in the season,” he completed.
With this approach, Aston Martin aims not only to recover lost ground, but to become a top competitive force as the 2026 season progresses.
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