2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[MaroonBigFoot]

i get the feeling that Aston won't be a race winner initially, but throughout the season, will improve, probably the best car if honda doesn't kill us, really HONDA, "get sh*t done" please, almost in every the interviews, they are playing themselves down, but hey, its typical japanese thing to do no?

[collindsilva]

AMR should be in the top 5 group, Honda engines will be reliable, the Japanese are humble and they would like to show the results on ground and not show off ..

[Rikrikrik]

The Bahrain tests will be fundamental, I don't know if anyone has already used more aggressive engine modes and that will be a very important part. Remember Ferrari in 2022? They did some brilliant tests, with many laps, but then as soon as they pushed the engine to Catalunya and Baku, they had problems. We also need to see how Honda's development is progressing, because the one presented was not the final version.

Yes, I am in agreement with that (bold highlighted). Statements from Honda and the delay for Barcelona, all point to the fact that the team is 'delayed w.r.t others'. Hence the 'as much as possible' in my post. All teams are doing the best they can, I don't think anybody is trying to 'hide their capability' or 'play poker' with the competition (unlike what happens in the mid-years or end-years of a regulation set) - because 'proper data' is too important at this stage.

Drivers can easily hide laptime by pushing in selective mini-sectors and ease off in other mini-sectors , and then do the inverse in the next lap, and show 'consistent laptime'. At this early stage of development, it will be seen as the car having to suffer from 'tradeoff' between corner entry and exits. So sandbagging can be done by the driver, it doesn't need the car to be compromised from whatever is the 'target performance after risk evaluation' that the team wants.
Piastri (first half), Russel & Max did it so well last season, even all the way until end of Q1 - not revealing their trump cards driving wise, and build a perception of 'car limitation'.

Someone mentioned that there wasn't even any restrictions on fuel for the Barcelona test.

To Bahrain test even. The Sustainable fuel will be mandatory just on Melbourne. For 2 season in Bahrain, teams can use fossil fuel .It seems that McLaren was the only company to test sustainable fuels in Spain (rumor) and because os that, coincidentally or not, had problems with its fuel system ( they had, not a rumor).

[venkyhere]

Yes, I am in agreement with that (bold highlighted). Statements from Honda and the delay for Barcelona, all point to the fact that the team is 'delayed w.r.t others'. Hence the 'as much as possible' in my post. All teams are doing the best they can, I don't think anybody is trying to 'hide their capability' or 'play poker' with the competition (unlike what happens in the mid-years or end-years of a regulation set) - because 'proper data' is too important at this stage.

Drivers can easily hide laptime by pushing in selective mini-sectors and ease off in other mini-sectors , and then do the inverse in the next lap, and show 'consistent laptime'. At this early stage of development, it will be seen as the car having to suffer from 'tradeoff' between corner entry and exits. So sandbagging can be done by the driver, it doesn't need the car to be compromised from whatever is the 'target performance after risk evaluation' that the team wants.
Piastri (first half), Russel & Max did it so well last season, even all the way until end of Q1 - not revealing their trump cards driving wise, and build a perception of 'car limitation'.

Someone mentioned that there wasn't even any restrictions on fuel for the Barcelona test.

To Bahrain test even. The Sustainable fuel will be mandatory just on Melbourne. For 2 season in Bahrain, teams can use fossil fuel .It seems that McLaren was the only company to test sustainable fuels in Spain (rumor) and because os that, coincidentally or not, had problems with its fuel system ( they had, not a rumor).

If their fuel supplier has made it available, why would ANY TEAM want to go back to fossil fuel to run even a single lap ? What is the objective of 9 days of testing ? with what fuel did all the 'bench testing' happen at the factory of the engine manufacturer ?
This whole 'running fossil fuel' thing is preposterous. If anyone is doing it, it's because they are at a disadvantage as the synthetic fuel (of the desired composition) hasn't been delivered to them for the test due to some issue.

[TyreSlip]

Someone mentioned that there wasn't even any restrictions on fuel for the Barcelona test.

To Bahrain test even. The Sustainable fuel will be mandatory just on Melbourne. For 2 season in Bahrain, teams can use fossil fuel .It seems that McLaren was the only company to test sustainable fuels in Spain (rumor) and because os that, coincidentally or not, had problems with its fuel system ( they had, not a rumor).

If their fuel supplier has made it available, why would ANY TEAM want to go back to fossil fuel to run even a single lap ? What is the objective of 9 days of testing ? with what fuel did all the 'bench testing' happen at the factory of the engine manufacturer ?
This whole 'running fossil fuel' thing is preposterous. If anyone is doing it, it's because they are at a disadvantage as the synthetic fuel (of the desired composition) hasn't been delivered to them for the test due to some issue.

I would think if there was any problem with the engine running in real-world conditions, running fossil fuels during the shakedown would rule out fuel as the issue.

[AhmerBaig]

https://x.com/cytrusf1/status/201848502 ... _&ref_url=

[Leon Kennedy]

Newey's latest interview was very interesting; besides providing us with new information, he also gave us some answers. For example, the suspension, he talked about how the mechanics took Newey's requests as a challenge. Here he highlights the importance of the greatest engineer in this sport ever, an aerodynamicist who also knows about mechanics, the suspensions in fact, like the rear ones, are designed in such a way that the mechanics are subordinated to the aerodynamics and not vice versa. Why are they so impressive? Look at the arms, how they don't cross and leave air spaces. Take other teams as a reference: they all have crossed arms without spaces; they look like "walls." Be careful, this does not mean that they are better, Adrian himself said that nobody knows what the correct philosophy is and we will find out on the track, however, an aerodynamicist usually doesn't know about mechanics, which is why he's truly a phenomenon, an aerodynamicist doesn't design suspensions. A typical mechanical designer thinks:
kinematics
stiffness
anti-squat/anti-dive
joint loads
reliability and assembly
For Adrian instead the suspensions, are:
channels
deflectors
vortex generators
pressure shields
But the beautiful part of this interview, as I said at the beginning, is working together with the mechanics in fact he doesn't design every linkage. He imposes:
rigidities
layouts
philosophies
the mechanic:
makes everything physically possible
It's an asymmetric co-design.


Even those who said that Newey only uses pencil and pen, in this interview clarifies that AI tools are used (even if they are not perfect tools yet, they are limited to an internet search, when in the field of F1 we are much more advanced as he clarifies in the interview), he is also very good with CFD and at feeling the pilots' sensations for the right setup of the machine (he also says this in the interview as many people thought, including me). Let's see how it goes.

[Kamel]

The "tight packaging" also means a wide working settings window, innit?

[BanMeToo]

Are you all not worried about his "4 months late" line in that interview?

[FNTC]

I would rather have Newey in full control of car creation for 10 months than the other ones for 14, personally. We have all known when he started for a long time. Also some of the other teams split their focus between the 25 and 26 cars for a while last year, while he barely thought about the AMR25.

[Leon Kennedy]

Are you all not worried about his "4 months late" line in that interview?

Actually, I think he already had plans even before 2026, then of course the work with the team started in April. But I remember Alpine 2022 3 years working on that regulation since 2018 and then Redbull comes, despite being fighting for the championship in 2021, in 6 months they made the best car (overweight)

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Does that mean Pedro de la Rosa left the team?

I thought Jenson enjoyed commentary more.

He was a Williams Brand Ambassador before, I'm not sure this will stop him commentating.

[Ashwinv16]

There continues to be rumors about Honda not being the best engine and the ICE is even behind the Audis (like nearly 20+hp down on the mercs) but Honda has something for the Battery systems that's basically going to be able to boost to its full extent almost every single lap (excluding the boost used to reach high speeds in the straights) (The other teams are said to be able to use it only every 2-4 laps with some teams even needing to lift and coast in qualifying to increase battery charge)(AGAIN YOU CANT USE IT CONTUNIOUSLY AS THERE IS A RULE ON HOW MUCH RECHARGE IS ALLOWED PER LAP) . Qualifying might be bad but there is consensus that the Aston might be hard to beat in a race distance on tracks with medium high to very low recharging potential like Monza, Bahrain, Austria...basically tracks with long straight and/or less hard braking zones. Apart from potential reliability issues (that all teams will have) the car might struggle on slow speed or track with high intense braking for recharge thus the shorter wheelbase and intense body work that is somewhat draggy on profile (yes the deep undercut is a draggy profile cause in aerodynamics this creates a lot of open space of low pressure which increases drag) that's also where the rear suspension comes in.

As long as other teams don't quickly catch up with the batteries Aston should be in the mix but qualifying is going to be bad all year long unless Newey really cooked aero and dynamics wise.

[Xyz22]

Incredible what Newey is doing already in this team.
Having the car in the wind tunnel only in April and being able to develop the car so much in key areas highlights why he is so ahead of the others. Someone else would have made a very safe design like Cadillac to be ready for the start of the season.

[AR3-GP]

Incredible what Newey is doing already in this team.
Having the car in the wind tunnel only in April and being able to develop the car so much in key areas highlights why he is so ahead of the others. Someone else would have made a very safe design like Cadillac to be ready for the start of the season.

AMR would have about 2100 more CFD runs (700 extra in each of 3 ATP periods) than Mclaren between June and December. They would also have ~300 more windtunnel runs over the 3 ATP periods in the 2nd half of 2025. There's no reason why a team with their resources can't have a good car and it doesn't make sense to compare them to Cadillac which is the equivalent of Haas in 2016.

We should not be under any illusion about the inequity of resources that has gone into the 2026 cars. If AMR started 4 months behind, and had a small allocation like Mclaren, they wouldn't have been able to do anything. The extra development time has compensated a lot for the late start.