Five takeaways from Newey's revealing interview on Aston Martin’s F1 2026 woes

Last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix was the worst yet, performance wise, for struggling Formula 1 outfit Aston Martin.

The Silverstone squad was up to a second behind next-slowest outfit Cadillac, as a lack of development has gradually made the team drift further away from the back of the pack.

With just one fortunate point collected in Monaco, Aston is now banking on a significant overhaul of its 2026 car and fundamental changes behind the scenes to get itself back on track.

A rough start for new engine partner Honda has not exactly helped matters either, but Adrian Newey's focus is on what Aston has under control itself.

In a candid interview published by the manufacturer, team boss Newey opened up on why 2026 has gone so wrong for Aston Martin, and what he is doing to address it.

Aston Martin's 2026 form is about more than a late start

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

Aston's delayed start to its 2026 car project has been well documented by now, with the squad not getting its feet under the table until mid-March last year, and the first wind tunnel model only being deployed a month later. That put the team on the back foot compared to rivals who had been in the tunnel from January onwards.

Being behind on timing has contributed to Aston's chassis being overweight and its aerodynamics being underdeveloped. But, as Newey now revealed, Aston's problems go much further than that. Perhaps not unlike Williams, Aston was clearly not ready as an organisation to tackle the wholesale regulation changes, which also involved building its own gearbox for the first time.

"Timing was a huge part of it, but not the only part," Newey said. "We've got a very talented group of people, but as an organisation we weren't yet working together as well as you would like and operating as one cohesive unit.

"We were relying on tools and processes that had been patched and bodged for years – you could trace some of them right back to the very early days of the Jordan team that was based here in Silverstone, long before Aston Martin returned to the grid.

"At some point, a system that's just patch‑on‑patch stops being fit for purpose. That's where we had got to. The result was a very frustrating car build. Parts weren't being ordered at the right time – not because people weren't doing their jobs, but because the underlying system was failing them."

Newey also took responsibility for the team's "bold" aerodynamic choices, which he said caused additional headaches. "Aerodynamically, we also took a bold direction – which was largely pushed by me – without the luxury of exploring multiple concepts in depth because time was against us,” he added. "I wouldn't say the direction we've taken is fundamentally wrong, but it has thrown up challenges we didn't anticipate."

What Newey is doing to address structural problems

Adrian Newey, Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin

Photo by: Aston Martin

That eye-opening experience is now leading to huge changes in the background to get a better grip on car development and production, with many more items now being produced in-house. That should allow Aston to run a tighter ship both in terms of timelines and resource management.

"We've taken this difficult spell as an opportunity to overhaul how we work," Newey said. "We're making big strides in our in‑house facilities and production capabilities.

"You won't see all the gains immediately, but they'll be visible on the updated car: many more components are now produced in‑house. The gearbox casing is manufactured here, the floor patterns and floors themselves are made here, and a lot of parts that were previously outsourced have come back in-house.

"That gives us better cost control, but more importantly, much greater flexibility and control over our own destiny. Bringing more work in‑house gives us better quality control, better responsiveness and a tighter feedback loop from research to design to manufacture."

Improvements to Aston Martin's simulation tools, which Newey labelled "weak" last year, also are still in the pipeline.

"Historically, at this team, there hasn't been enough investment in engineering simulation tools – not just project management systems, but the core physics tools themselves," he added.

"We're putting that investment in now, but you don't rewrite and validate those tools overnight. Correlating them properly with the real car takes time. At the moment, they're improving, but the real gains from that work will come later in the year."

Aston planning upgrade for Hungary

Hungaroring

Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images

Rather than bringing incremental upgrades that wouldn't have moved the needle, Aston has been working on one much bigger package that will be deployed at next month's Hungarian Grand Prix, the last race before the summer shutdown.

At the twisty Hungaroring, a downforce boost could make a meaningful difference to lift it ahead of Cadillac, even if Honda is not yet ready to roll out its own planned power unit upgrade.

Newey has now put more meat on the bone regarding the nature of Aston's first real upgrade package, which is centred around a big aero revamp and a weight reduction, which required re-homologating the chassis.

"The main structural elements remain the same – the chassis and gearbox architecture don't fundamentally change – but we've taken weight out of both, which required re-homologating and crash testing the forward chassis," he said.

"The front suspension is unchanged. The rear suspension is slightly revised. We've developed a new nose and substantially revised aerodynamic surfaces. So, while the core structure is similar, it's a big aerodynamic package coupled with significant weight reduction. The target is to get very close to the weight limit."

He added: "We're predicting a large step, but I'm reluctant to put specific numbers out there because our simulation tools aren't yet as sophisticated or well correlated as they need to be."

Upgrades key to Alonso's future amid looming 2027 shift

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

Over the second half of the season, Aston still has some decisions to make regarding how much more it will pour into 2026 and how much it will shift focus to 2027. In theory, Aston should have more cap space available because it hasn't deployed as many new parts as its rivals yet, allowing it to make a bigger push over the second half of the season.

That would especially be important to raise morale and restore Fernando Alonso's confidence in the team, with Newey admitting the Hungary upgrade will play a big part in convincing the 44-year-old to extend his career.

"It's very important. Fernando is really looking forward to the upgrade and, if it performs, we hope he'll be in the cockpit for another season," Newey said, bullishly. "Given his experience, his feel for the car, his ability to guide development, he's a tremendous asset. But he wants to see clear, tangible progress. If we can show that we're moving decisively in the right direction, he's absolutely committed to being behind the wheel."

But the recently approved regulations changes for 2027, which also extend to the aerodynamics of the cars, mean that not all the work done to this year's car will simply carry over.

Changes for 2027 include moves to slash downforce around the floor and rear wing, which the FIA hopes will lower corner speeds and thus help teams with energy management as downforce levels are already higher than the governing body anticipated.

"On the chassis side, the changes are fewer but still significant," Newey said. "The biggest is to what's often called the 'bib', or 'tea tray', at the front of the floor. The leading edge has been moved by about 300 millimetres, which allows you to run the front of the car lower. That brings a different set of aerodynamic characteristics.

"There's also a slightly shallower rear wing to reduce downforce, some changes to the front of the floor – the 'bear claws' or 'fingers' reducing from five to three – and the removal of various tricks teams have been using around the exhaust and rear wing.

"The key one for us is that front‑of‑floor change. It gives everyone a different aero challenge to solve. Because we've effectively been forced to grow up quickly as a team over the last 12 months, we're in a much better place to capitalise on the regulation changes than we would have been a year ago."

Newey is still very much in charge after recovering from illness

Adrian Newey, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Newey also opened up on his lingering illness last year, admitting he went through a "difficult period".

"I'm OK now, but it's been a difficult period," he said. "In truth, I was not 100 per cent last year. I had to balance health and work much more carefully. The team handled it incredibly well. I kept a very good relationship with the engineers and I don't feel it caused too much of a blip. That's a testament to how adaptable and supportive everyone here is."

But while Newey took a step back from the traditional team principal duties earlier this year, with trackside lead Mike Krack now the official spokesperson for the team on a race weekend, Newey is still pulling the strings on the team's overarching strategy.

"'Team Principal' is, in part, a formal requirement – under FIA regulations, you have to nominate someone in that role. It's a job title, not a job description," he explained.

"The way we interpret it is that, when it comes to key strategic decisions, the buck stops with me. That's the heart of the job. Of course, Lawrence [Stroll] is also deeply involved in those big calls too.”