2025 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[-wkst-]

It hard to imagine any top drivers would sign a contract with such clauses you mention, especially with Alonso's temper. If Stroll senior want to "sack" Alonso in 2026 (or even right now) for Verstappen or Russell, he can just give Alonso the full payment cheque and send him home sleeping, just like Raikkonen in Ferrari or Ricciardo in Mclaren, no need for any performance clauses. There's really no points for us to keep imagining such performance clauses, remember we all are just keyboard warriors.

As Helmut Marko always said, in nearly every contract there are certain clauses and many would wonder how much is possible. The difference what you mentioned is that RAI at Ferrari or RIC at McLaren were at their absolute peak at the time, like VER now (exit clause) or VET at RBR in 2014 (exit clause), they had the upper hand in the negotiations. As a keyboard warrior I could imagine that ALO accepted some sort of perfomance clauses (which he never thought that could happen - like being behind STR in the standings after X races as an example). After all he is in his 40s. Furthermore it's well known that SAI knocked at the door last year at AMR and the team forced ALO for a quick decision.

Well put. Alonso is safe and it’s just British media (and to some extent Dutch) stirring things because they don’t particularly want to see ALO/Adrian domination. Especially after Adrian chose Alo over Hamilton. Really hurt their egos.

Can we stop for once this story that Newey joined because of ALO or chose ALO over HAM? Yes, he said that he wants to work with these drivers, but they are FOR SURE not the main reason why he joined the team. There are way more important reasons why he have chosen AMR.

No. Newey did join because he wanted to work with Alonso thats a fact. He could have just retired or went to Ferrari. Alonso attracted him to the team, they are even pictured having dinner long before it was announced on his wife’s instagram. I didn’t say it was the only reason, thats just your insecurities showing.

Once again, you wrote that it hurted the egos of british media because he chose ALO over HAM.

As much as I dislike HAM, that's simply BS and you can't be that delusional to believe that. The "I always wanted to work with ALO and HAM" is a nice thing for the media (and for sure true), but the real reasons are rather total technical freedom, a fat paycheck and a co-ownership at AMR.

[hollus]

Please, everyone, remember to consider adding “in my opinion” or similar in some posts.
We all have opinions, I’ll assume that virtually none of us has facts.
Using 100% assertive grammar might be good in marketing, but it poisons the air in a discussion board.
Please remain civil and allow space for different possibilities and opinions.

[TyreSlip]

As much as I dislike HAM, that's simply BS and you can't be that delusional to believe that. The "I always wanted to work with ALO and HAM" is a nice thing for the media (and for sure true), but the real reasons are rather total technical freedom, a fat paycheck and a co-ownership at AMR.

You insist there are negative performance clauses in Alonso's contract based on speculation over something Helmut Marko said about all contracts having clauses, yet Newey's own words about wanting to work with Alonso are him being disingenous to the media and cannot possibly be a sliver reason for him wanting to join AMR.

Just because others don't share your line of thinking does not make them delusional.

[NAPI10]

Hey everyone, I might be new around here, but I’ve been lurking for a while and wanted to share my take on things. One of the main reasons Newey joined Aston Martin is the chance to work with Fernando—let’s be real, he wouldn’t have come just for Lance. On the other hand, the British press has never been a fan of Fernando or anything good happening to him, so they’re always cooking up some crap about him or his circle. That’s just a given. Meanwhile, Fernando’s still outpacing Lance by four-tenths in every session, except in quali, where he usually doubles that gap.

Alonso isn’t going anywhere to make room for Russell, Leclerc, or whoever else people are fantasizing about. If it’s about putting the boss’s son in his place (with the stopwatch as proof), they’d rather have someone like Fernando do it. He’s been tight with the family for years, not some young driver Lance’s age who he doesn’t even get along with. I’m honestly fed up with the daily dose of nonsense about Alonso being “too old”” or “hitting his cliff” or whatever other ridiculous claims. Fernando is easily top two on the grid, and he can keep that up for at least a couple of years.

Lately, this place has turned into a bit of a circus with all these new fans who don’t seem to care about understanding what’s going on, just observing, and refuse to learn anything. Sorry for the wall of text, but I’m just fed up with reading the kind of nonsense that drives me up the wall lately.

Newey joined AM to make S***-load of money & retire. Rest of the things are just bi-products.

[zoroastar]

It hard to imagine any top drivers would sign a contract with such clauses you mention, especially with Alonso's temper. If Stroll senior want to "sack" Alonso in 2026 (or even right now) for Verstappen or Russell, he can just give Alonso the full payment cheque and send him home sleeping, just like Raikkonen in Ferrari or Ricciardo in Mclaren, no need for any performance clauses. There's really no points for us to keep imagining such performance clauses, remember we all are just keyboard warriors.

As Helmut Marko always said, in nearly every contract there are certain clauses and many would wonder how much is possible. The difference what you mentioned is that RAI at Ferrari or RIC at McLaren were at their absolute peak at the time, like VER now (exit clause) or VET at RBR in 2014 (exit clause), they had the upper hand in the negotiations. As a keyboard warrior I could imagine that ALO accepted some sort of perfomance clauses (which he never thought that could happen - like being behind STR in the standings after X races as an example). After all he is in his 40s. Furthermore it's well known that SAI knocked at the door last year at AMR and the team forced ALO for a quick decision.

Can we stop for once this story that Newey joined because of ALO or chose ALO over HAM? Yes, he said that he wants to work with these drivers, but they are FOR SURE not the main reason why he joined the team. There are way more important reasons why he have chosen AMR.

No. Newey did join because he wanted to work with Alonso thats a fact. He could have just retired or went to Ferrari. Alonso attracted him to the team, they are even pictured having dinner long before it was announced on his wife’s instagram. I didn’t say it was the only reason, thats just your insecurities showing.

Once again, you wrote that it hurted the egos of british media because he chose ALO over HAM.

As much as I dislike HAM, that's simply BS and you can't be that delusional to believe that. The "I always wanted to work with ALO and HAM" is a nice thing for the media (and for sure true), but the real reasons are rather total technical freedom, a fat paycheck and a co-ownership at AMR.

man "in my opinion" there is no situation in which they would sack alonso without paying him his salary (as bad as you want that to happen). there is also a thing called optics. the team essentially firing alonso , to favor the owners son would be a PR nightmare (as if lance isnt one to begin with). all he needs is a little more negativity following him around. its one thing for lance to be blocking a seat from much more worthy candidates but to actually roast an f1 legend, whos thoroughly outperformed him, AND HAS A CONTRACT, would be a fiasco to the public and the shareholders. newey may not have picked aston solely because of alonso, but how many decisions like that would it take for him to realize that he joined a freaking clown show of a team? he doesnt HAVE to be there and its stupid intrateam dynamics that caused him to leave redbull. its one thing for the team to make excuses for lances form, its a completely different thing when they stop honoring contracts of drivers with alonsos fan base. fiddling with an f1 legends career over a few points in an under performing car against an under performing driver is just a weird conspiracy theory. i dont get why youre so hellbent on them getting rid of him to begin with, but to each their own.

[zoroastar]

Hey everyone, I might be new around here, but I’ve been lurking for a while and wanted to share my take on things. One of the main reasons Newey joined Aston Martin is the chance to work with Fernando—let’s be real, he wouldn’t have come just for Lance. On the other hand, the British press has never been a fan of Fernando or anything good happening to him, so they’re always cooking up some crap about him or his circle. That’s just a given. Meanwhile, Fernando’s still outpacing Lance by four-tenths in every session, except in quali, where he usually doubles that gap.

Alonso isn’t going anywhere to make room for Russell, Leclerc, or whoever else people are fantasizing about. If it’s about putting the boss’s son in his place (with the stopwatch as proof), they’d rather have someone like Fernando do it. He’s been tight with the family for years, not some young driver Lance’s age who he doesn’t even get along with. I’m honestly fed up with the daily dose of nonsense about Alonso being “too old”” or “hitting his cliff” or whatever other ridiculous claims. Fernando is easily top two on the grid, and he can keep that up for at least a couple of years.

Lately, this place has turned into a bit of a circus with all these new fans who don’t seem to care about understanding what’s going on, just observing, and refuse to learn anything. Sorry for the wall of text, but I’m just fed up with reading the kind of nonsense that drives me up the wall lately.

Newey joined AM to make S***-load of money & retire. Rest of the things are just bi-products.

the dude already has a s*** load of money. have you seen his yacht? that could be said of a lot of sport people and athletes, but i dont take newey as being quite that shallow. he chose to keep going because he wants to keep his mind sharp in his old age, and hes still interested. and he still felt the fire of wanting to compete after being kicked to the sidelines at redbull. the fact that the guy is practically living at the factory is enough to tell us that its not ALL about the money. i guarantee that sleeping in his office isnt part of his contract. and im pretty sure that getting alonso a championship at the end of his career would be a real big motivation among all the other motives. the money is a bi product in my opinion.

[diffuser]

The Pit stops weren't that bad ...

# D# Driver          Team         LAP At Time  in time Tot time
2 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 50  15:07:35 23.409  47.430

[LookingGlass]

The idea of Alonso potentially leaving AMR doesn't make much sense considering his most recent contract with AM and his age. A big reason for him signing his most recent contract was his post-F1 career (see Aston Martin Valiant, AMR's WEC entry this year) and driving a Newey car. Outside of a year or two, he knows his time in F1 is close to the end.

George's management is probably drumming up these rumors for contract negotiations. A more likely target for AMR would be Verstappen to replace Stroll. Lawrence would have a hard time denying a Verstappen signing with the shareholder pressure. Max has an existing relationship with Newey, bros with Alonso, familiar with the Honda PU (not sure how relevant that is with the 2026 regs) and has expressed interest outside of F1. AMR checks a lot of boxes there.

[peewon]

The idea of Alonso potentially leaving AMR doesn't make much sense considering his most recent contract with AM and his age. A big reason for him signing his most recent contract was his post-F1 career (see Aston Martin Valiant, AMR's WEC entry this year) and driving a Newey car. Outside of a year or two, he knows his time in F1 is close to the end.

George's management is probably drumming up these rumors for contract negotiations. A more likely target for AMR would be Verstappen to replace Stroll. Lawrence would have a hard time denying a Verstappen signing with the shareholder pressure. Max has an existing relationship with Newey, bros with Alonso, familiar with the Honda PU (not sure how relevant that is with the 2026 regs) and has expressed interest outside of F1. AMR checks a lot of boxes there.

See the problem is Lance is somewhat important to the guy who writes all the cheques at AM. Lance may be the reason he got into F1 and invested a whole lot of money in the first place. So unless Lance is completely over it and decides to quit (possible but highly unlikely), hes not going anywhere.

Alonso is in his 40s and although he has good relations with the boss and a contract for '26, Cowell is new to the team and usually when people take up important leadership positions they like to make changes. No idea how his terms with Alonso are. I expect Alonso to be there next season and high probability of not being there after that. Whether he decides to retire or move on in case AM find someone else seems up in the air.

There was a similar vibe when he left Alpine. He had a one year contract on the table but wanted longer tenure and thats when he started making statements in the media about his age and how young he feels and how fit he is etc. etc. Similar thing could happen where he might get longer commitment from Briatore and might decide to leave amicably which might be prompting AM to step up their search for replacement.

[-wkst-]

As much as I dislike HAM, that's simply BS and you can't be that delusional to believe that. The "I always wanted to work with ALO and HAM" is a nice thing for the media (and for sure true), but the real reasons are rather total technical freedom, a fat paycheck and a co-ownership at AMR.

You insist there are negative performance clauses in Alonso's contract based on speculation over something Helmut Marko said about all contracts having clauses, yet Newey's own words about wanting to work with Alonso are him being disingenous to the media and cannot possibly be a sliver reason for him wanting to join AMR.

Just because others don't share your line of thinking does not make them delusional.

Neither I base my opinions on something Helmut Marko says nor do I insist that ALO has "negative" perfomance clauses, I just have a realistic view on things and share my opinion. After all ALO is in his 40s. Furthermore where do I write that Newey is disingenous to the media? I totally believe Newey that he wants to work with legends like ALO or HAM, but I also believe that there are way more important reasons (which I listed) why he joined the team and working with ALO is "just" a nice side effect.

man "in my opinion" there is no situation in which they would sack alonso without paying him his salary (as bad as you want that to happen). there is also a thing called optics. the team essentially firing alonso , to favor the owners son would be a PR nightmare (as if lance isnt one to begin with). all he needs is a little more negativity following him around. its one thing for lance to be blocking a seat from much more worthy candidates but to actually roast an f1 legend, whos thoroughly outperformed him, AND HAS A CONTRACT, would be a fiasco to the public and the shareholders. newey may not have picked aston solely because of alonso, but how many decisions like that would it take for him to realize that he joined a freaking clown show of a team? he doesnt HAVE to be there and its stupid intrateam dynamics that caused him to leave redbull. its one thing for the team to make excuses for lances form, its a completely different thing when they stop honoring contracts of drivers with alonsos fan base. fiddling with an f1 legends career over a few points in an under performing car against an under performing driver is just a weird conspiracy theory. i dont get why youre so hellbent on them getting rid of him to begin with, but to each their own.

The only thing I want to happen is a 33rd win. Once ALO leaves the team most likely many guys including me will leave this thread, as I am not interested in AMR as a team.

What I absolutely don't see is that Stroll or others are interested what the public thinks, bad optics or whatever, otherwise STR wouldn't be in the 2nd seat anymore. They just don't care.

And let's also be honest, if they ditch ALO for VER, who should complain in the public F1 world? Nothing would happen.

[RedNEO]

As much as I dislike HAM, that's simply BS and you can't be that delusional to believe that. The "I always wanted to work with ALO and HAM" is a nice thing for the media (and for sure true), but the real reasons are rather total technical freedom, a fat paycheck and a co-ownership at AMR.

You insist there are negative performance clauses in Alonso's contract based on speculation over something Helmut Marko said about all contracts having clauses, yet Newey's own words about wanting to work with Alonso are him being disingenous to the media and cannot possibly be a sliver reason for him wanting to join AMR.

Just because others don't share your line of thinking does not make them delusional.

Said it better than I could have. Thank you

[ispano6]

Aston Martin has lured one of Adrian Newey’s former Red Bull lieutenants back to Formula 1 to help drive forward its simulation tools.

The Race can reveal that Giles Wood, who worked closely with Newey as he headed up Red Bull’s simulation and analysis department during its golden era of success with Sebastian Vettel, has been convinced to return to F1 after a recent spell working with Apple on autonomous technologies.

Wood has joined Aston Martin as its simulation and vehicle modelling director, and will play a critical role in delivering improvements to an area of performance that Newey has singled out as lacking right now.
...
Alongside the efforts to improve its simulation tools, Aston Martin has been on a recruitment drive to bolster areas where it feels it is behind the opposition – including in its aerodynamics department.

And that has also included the appointment of Gioacchino 'Jack' Vino as its new chief aerodynamicist.

Vino started his career as an aerodynamicist at Toyota and then Red Bull before a brief spell at Renault. He then moved to Mercedes in January 2012 as a senior aerodynamicist, before moving up the ranks to become chief aerodynamicist there.

He eventually left the team in November 2024, and officially started in his new role at Aston Martin in April.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/asto ... ack-to-f1/

[RedNEO]

Aston Martin has lured one of Adrian Newey’s former Red Bull lieutenants back to Formula 1 to help drive forward its simulation tools.

The Race can reveal that Giles Wood, who worked closely with Newey as he headed up Red Bull’s simulation and analysis department during its golden era of success with Sebastian Vettel, has been convinced to return to F1 after a recent spell working with Apple on autonomous technologies.

Wood has joined Aston Martin as its simulation and vehicle modelling director, and will play a critical role in delivering improvements to an area of performance that Newey has singled out as lacking right now.
...
Alongside the efforts to improve its simulation tools, Aston Martin has been on a recruitment drive to bolster areas where it feels it is behind the opposition – including in its aerodynamics department.

And that has also included the appointment of Gioacchino 'Jack' Vino as its new chief aerodynamicist.

Vino started his career as an aerodynamicist at Toyota and then Red Bull before a brief spell at Renault. He then moved to Mercedes in January 2012 as a senior aerodynamicist, before moving up the ranks to become chief aerodynamicist there.

He eventually left the team in November 2024, and officially started in his new role at Aston Martin in April.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/asto ... ack-to-f1/

Was just about to post this. Extremely welcome additions. Things are looking so much better than 12 months ago.

[Nikosar]

Newey joined AM to make S***-load of money & retire. Rest of the things are just bi-products.

the dude already has a s*** load of money. have you seen his yacht? that could be said of a lot of sport people and athletes, but i dont take newey as being quite that shallow. he chose to keep going because he wants to keep his mind sharp in his old age, and hes still interested. and he still felt the fire of wanting to compete after being kicked to the sidelines at redbull. the fact that the guy is practically living at the factory is enough to tell us that its not ALL about the money. i guarantee that sleeping in his office isnt part of his contract. and im pretty sure that getting alonso a championship at the end of his career would be a real big motivation among all the other motives. the money is a bi product in my opinion.

He could also sleep comfortably in the Ferrari's office. Also keep his mind sharp and everything you said but one team offered equity and a bigger pay check and the other did not. F1 is an industry and a business before being a sport.

[peewon]

Aston Martin has lured one of Adrian Newey’s former Red Bull lieutenants back to Formula 1 to help drive forward its simulation tools.

The Race can reveal that Giles Wood, who worked closely with Newey as he headed up Red Bull’s simulation and analysis department during its golden era of success with Sebastian Vettel, has been convinced to return to F1 after a recent spell working with Apple on autonomous technologies.

Wood has joined Aston Martin as its simulation and vehicle modelling director, and will play a critical role in delivering improvements to an area of performance that Newey has singled out as lacking right now.
...
Alongside the efforts to improve its simulation tools, Aston Martin has been on a recruitment drive to bolster areas where it feels it is behind the opposition – including in its aerodynamics department.

And that has also included the appointment of Gioacchino 'Jack' Vino as its new chief aerodynamicist.

Vino started his career as an aerodynamicist at Toyota and then Red Bull before a brief spell at Renault. He then moved to Mercedes in January 2012 as a senior aerodynamicist, before moving up the ranks to become chief aerodynamicist there.

He eventually left the team in November 2024, and officially started in his new role at Aston Martin in April.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/asto ... ack-to-f1/

This was a my big concern with Krack leading the team. Does he even know who to recruit considering his lack of experience in F1. And if not him then who was leading the recruitment drive? I think Stella made the difference for Mclaren and hopefully Newey could do the same in terms of getting the right people in.