2025 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[diffuser]

Why Newey "goes to another office" to avoid work on 2025 Aston Martin F1 car
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/16-07 ... /10742429/

Good article

[SSJ4]

This means that instead of getting just 90% of the testing allowance, the British outfit will instead get 105% for the remainder of the season. As a result, it will now have 84 hours of wind-on time, up from 72, and 336 wind tunnel runs for the remainder of the season. With Adrian Newey onboard, maybe this is all the time he needs to turn around the team’s fortunes ahead of the new regulations coming in.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/winn ... /10742457/

[-wkst-]

Why Newey "goes to another office" to avoid work on 2025 Aston Martin F1 car
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/16-07 ... /10742429/

What? I read on the cool and always informative "Aston Martin Insider" twitter accounts the last weeks/months that the updates were made under the guidance of Newey. How is that possible...

Fact ist that some very high profile engineers joined the team 2025 (Newey and Vino in March, or Cardile and Elliott in July). Maybe already too late for 2026 for some, but the leaders changed dramatically over the last 12 months.

Maybe we will see a new leader of the perfomance department too, as there hasn't been announced a successor of McCullough so far.

[zoroastar]

The end of the day. If the upgrades don't start working, it will decrease the chances of the car being strong next year. It will mean that they haven't figured out what they are doing wrong with the WT and CFD. Yes, the floor will play a much smaller part next year but it will still play a part.

personally i dont think theres any question that the upgrades have worked. they may not be where we want them to be, but the car is miles ahead of where they were at the begining of the season. even alonso is saying that they worked.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Why Newey "goes to another office" to avoid work on 2025 Aston Martin F1 car
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/16-07 ... /10742429/

What? I read on the cool and always informative "Aston Martin Insider" twitter accounts the last weeks/months that the updates were made under the guidance of Newey. How is that possible...

Fact ist that some very high profile engineers joined the team 2025 (Newey and Vino in March, or Cardile and Elliott in July). Maybe already too late for 2026 for some, but the leaders changed dramatically over the last 12 months.

Maybe we will see a new leader of the perfomance department too, as there hasn't been announced a successor of McCullough so far.

Didn't someone mention that Newey gave the design team some broad strokes direction got the 25 updates, but isn't hands on involved in them?

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Doesn't matter if there is a clause or not. If Max tells the team he's leaving, that's it. The question is whether there are entities out there who will write a big enough check to RBR to secure the release -- and Stroll/ARAMCO certainly qualify

Ask Button about that one. Contract Recognition Board forced him to remain at BAR Honda when he wanted to break his contract and move back to Williams.... Obviously that actually worked out quite well for Jenson lol

Mac COULD tell Red Bull that he's not driving for them, but they could quite legally refuse to release him and block a move to another team - they could even potentially sue him for breach of contract. Not saying they would, but they definitely could if they chose to.

[diffuser]

Doesn't matter if there is a clause or not. If Max tells the team he's leaving, that's it. The question is whether there are entities out there who will write a big enough check to RBR to secure the release -- and Stroll/ARAMCO certainly qualify

Ask Button about that one. Contract Recognition Board forced him to remain at BAR Honda when he wanted to break his contract and move back to Williams.... Obviously that actually worked out quite well for Jenson lol

Mac COULD tell Red Bull that he's not driving for them, but they could quite legally refuse to release him and block a move to another team - they could even potentially sue him for breach of contract. Not saying they would, but they definitely could if they chose to.

Yep and RBR contracts tend to be tight.

The one that has me interested is CH's contract. Apparently he signed up till 2030. The shoe is on the other foot on that one. Wonder how much they're going to have to pay CH to get out of that or they just gonna pay him till 2030? Sure he's having dreams of doubling dipping.

[-wkst-]

Today should be (at least in theory) the official starting date of CTO Enrico Cardile. Would be nice if the team gives an update on that matter soon...

[Rikrikrik]

Watanabe said this week that Aston Martin requested/suggested changes to the engine architecture. He doesn't know if the request came from Cowel or Newey, but he said he likes this frank and transparent interaction between the works. Sorry guys, i dont remember where i find this articles, but, some spanish pages has this information too.

[diffuser]

Watanabe said this week that Aston Martin requested/suggested changes to the engine architecture. He doesn't know if the request came from Cowel or Newey, but he said he likes this frank and transparent interaction between the works. Sorry guys, i dont remember where i find this articles, but, some spanish pages has this information too.

I wonder what it could be? When he says engine, does he mean ICE or the PU in general?

[TyreSlip]

Watanabe said this week that Aston Martin requested/suggested changes to the engine architecture. He doesn't know if the request came from Cowel or Newey, but he said he likes this frank and transparent interaction between the works. Sorry guys, i dont remember where i find this articles, but, some spanish pages has this information too.

It's a good sign that Newey has some tricks up his sleeve.

I remember when Newey pushed the limits on packaging with the new 2014 engine regulations. In pre-season testing, Renault was annoyed as they could barely get the engine to fit inside the Red Bull. Yet the car was very competitive considering how much lap time the engine gave up to Mercedes.

[quincalla]

Here's the source, from Autosport Web Japan. It's an interview they did during the British GP weekend.

Here are some of the more interesting bits, machine-translated using DeepL:

─ I went to the Aston Martin factory just before the British GP, the 12th round, and the representative of Aston Martin, Andy Cowell, told me that they are testing on the bench the Honda power unit combined with their gearbox for the 2026 season. Please tell us about your progress toward 2026.

Koji Watanabe, President of HRC: "Of course, that is a power unit for testing and not the final specifications. We combine the latest products at the time with each other during the testing stage, and we conduct tests in the UK (Aston Martin side) and in Japan (HRC Sakura side). We don't do the tests at the same time. When we do it in Japan, we do it only in Japan, and we have already done multiple tests with not only objects but also people present at the same time, with HRC staff and Aston Martin staff working together. The gearbox that Aston Martin is building is gradually approaching final specifications, and we will continue to test it in the future.

─ This is Aston Martin's first time to have a works engine, and Adrian Newey has worked with Honda during his time at Red Bull. Have you received any requests from the teams for 2026?

President Watanabe: "We have already received various requests from the Aston Martin side to increase our competitiveness. We don't know if they are coming from Mr. Newey or not, but besides Mr. Newey, Andy also used to head the power unit division at Mercedes, so he has a good understanding of the power unit side of things. It is a plus for us to have such people on the car development side and to be able to discuss things with them. We have already received requests regarding the layout (of the power unit), and a group led by Satoshi Tsunoda, HRC's general manager of F1 power units, is coordinating with Aston Martin.

─ What do you think will be the important points in F1 in 2026?

President Watanabe: "The engine will definitely be one of the most important, but the vehicle, battery, motor, and fuel will also be important, and I think our overall strength will be tested. We are also heavily involved with HRC's Advanced Power Unit Energy Laboratory in regards to fuel development, with Senior Managing Director Ikuo Takeishi serving as the center's director. We have ExxonMobil's intellectual property, so we cannot use it as it is, but we will develop the knowledge we originally had with Aramco as well. We cannot make fuel, so we are only proposing a fuel recipe that we think is best for the engine.

─ When you combine the power unit with the car body, you test it on the bench, but how do you develop the fuel?

President Watanabe: "Basically, several types of fuel developed by Aramco are delivered to HRC, and we test them in a single cylinder at HRC Sakura. The best of them will be tested with six cylinders instead of a single cylinder.

[diffuser]

Watanabe said this week that Aston Martin requested/suggested changes to the engine architecture. He doesn't know if the request came from Cowel or Newey, but he said he likes this frank and transparent interaction between the works. Sorry guys, i dont remember where i find this articles, but, some spanish pages has this information too.

It's a good sign that Newey has some tricks up his sleeve.

I remember when Newey pushed the limits on packaging with the new 2014 engine regulations. In pre-season testing, Renault was annoyed as they could barely get the engine to fit inside the Red Bull. Yet the car was very competitive considering how much lap time the engine gave up to Mercedes.

That's a pretty big leap your making. On a statement that is fairly vague. Even he wrote that it isn't clear who made the request or when.

[TyreSlip]

Watanabe said this week that Aston Martin requested/suggested changes to the engine architecture. He doesn't know if the request came from Cowel or Newey, but he said he likes this frank and transparent interaction between the works. Sorry guys, i dont remember where i find this articles, but, some spanish pages has this information too.

It's a good sign that Newey has some tricks up his sleeve.

I remember when Newey pushed the limits on packaging with the new 2014 engine regulations. In pre-season testing, Renault was annoyed as they could barely get the engine to fit inside the Red Bull. Yet the car was very competitive considering how much lap time the engine gave up to Mercedes.

That's a pretty big leap your making. On a statement that is fairly vague. Even he wrote that it isn't clear who made the request or when.

Not definitive but it is what I believe, considering the team only worked on the basics of the 2026 car in January and February. All design and engineering solutions were left to Newey, and changes to the engine architecture would not be requested unless there was some specific packaging purpose that would not work or work as well otherwise without the engine architectural change.