2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[AR3-GP]

One of the things to fear is that Newey became deeply disenfranchised with F1 when RBR had the underpowered Renault engine that he couldn't do anything with. So AMR need to get a good engine very quickly, or Newey could just walk out.

[ScottB]

Sorry but, when you're the Team Principal, regardless of whether that makes sense as a job for you, it's your job to know what's going on.

November 2025? There were discussions all last year, in media, online etc about Honda being behind, having less time than the rest, having to rebuild their team etc. That's just not good enough Adrian. Fair enough if you're Chief Designer or something I guess, but the Team Principal should be fully up to speed on what's going on, even if there was someone assigned to that project (Cowell?). And his previous role as Chief Tech Officer or whatever it was absolutely should have known too.

Comes back to that point that Adrian as TP made no sense, and he himself basically saying he wasn't really going to do the TP specific work, and now here we are, a Team that has massively underperformed and seems to have critical issues in internal communication, relationship with partners etc etc.

[AR3-GP]

Sorry but, when you're the Team Principal, regardless of whether that makes sense as a job for you, it's your job to know what's going on.

November 2025? There were discussions all last year, in media, online etc about Honda being behind, having less time than the rest, having to rebuild their team etc. That's just not good enough Adrian. Fair enough if you're Chief Designer or something I guess, but the Team Principal should be fully up to speed on what's going on, even if there was someone assigned to that project (Cowell?).

Comes back to that point that Adrian as TP made no sense, and he himself basically saying he wasn't really going to do the TP specific work, and now here we are, a Team that has massively underperformed and seems to have critical issues in internal communication, relationship with partners etc etc.

I also don't think it's a good excuse because although Adrian Newey was only officially named team principal 4 months ago, it's clear that he has been calling the shots at Aston Martin since his arrival in March. He's the technical director and it's impossible to have designed a car without any knowledge of the PU.

[ScottB]

Sorry but, when you're the Team Principal, regardless of whether that makes sense as a job for you, it's your job to know what's going on.

November 2025? There were discussions all last year, in media, online etc about Honda being behind, having less time than the rest, having to rebuild their team etc. That's just not good enough Adrian. Fair enough if you're Chief Designer or something I guess, but the Team Principal should be fully up to speed on what's going on, even if there was someone assigned to that project (Cowell?).

Comes back to that point that Adrian as TP made no sense, and he himself basically saying he wasn't really going to do the TP specific work, and now here we are, a Team that has massively underperformed and seems to have critical issues in internal communication, relationship with partners etc etc.

I also don't think it's a good excuse because although Adrian Newey was only officially named team principal 4 months ago, it's clear that he has been calling the shots at Aston Martin since his arrival in March. He's the technical director and it's impossible to have designed a car without any knowledge of the PU.

Indeed, sounds like they just sat on their hands awaiting his arrival, so have to assume he was fully calling the shots.

[Badger]

In house engine > Works team with good partner > Customer team with good partner (Aston before) >>>>> Customer team with bad partner (you can change) > Works team with bad partner (Aston now)

In other words, they f***** themselves the same way Ron Dennis did in 2015. They ditched the best customer deal to pursue works status and got in bed with the wrong partner.

[CHT]

One of the things to fear is that Newey became deeply disenfranchised with F1 when RBR had the underpowered Renault engine that he couldn't do anything with. So AMR need to get a good engine very quickly, or Newey could just walk out.

Honda "innovative" looking engine idea could have come from AMR because Japanese are known to be conservative approach. I just cant see Honda gambling on something that eventually make their job harder and seemingly impossible.

I am in the opinion that AN and Lawrence Stroll will go seperate ways before end of the year. AN may go back to sailing once again

[AR3-GP]

Something positive:
@thomasmaheronf1

Honda confirms its 31 laps today have started to show some signs of positivity:

"We were able to gather the necessary data to determine that the items we implemented first on the dyno at HRC Sakura are working at the track.

"As a result, there are less battery vibrations occurring according to our analysis gathered during the session."

[ScottB]

One of the things to fear is that Newey became deeply disenfranchised with F1 when RBR had the underpowered Renault engine that he couldn't do anything with. So AMR need to get a good engine very quickly, or Newey could just walk out.

Honda "innovative" looking engine idea could have come from AMR because Japanese are known to be conservative approach. I just cant see Honda gambling on something that eventually make their job harder and seemingly impossible.

I am in the opinion that AN and Lawrence Stroll will go seperate ways before end of the year. AN may go back to sailing once again

Yeah I had a Newey / Stroll fall out in that prediction thread a few weeks ago. I'd say it looks an absolute stick on now.

[ScottB]

In house engine > Works team with good partner > Customer team with good partner (Aston before) >>>>> Customer team with bad partner (you can change) > Works team with bad partner (Aston now)

In other words, they f***** themselves the same way Ron Dennis did in 2015. They ditched the best customer deal to pursue works status and got in bed with the wrong partner.

Mclaren pushed Honda to enter 1 year ahead of schedule and then pushed their whole 'size zero' philosophy that compromised the engine design.

Obviously, Honda also didn't deliver, but Mclaren compounded things. Not clear if Aston were setting aggressive packaging, cooling targets etc, and obviously Honda have once again had less time than the rest...

[FittingMechanics]

One can understand McLaren in 2014 to push Honda forward, Mercedes was detuning customer engines at that time.

[Bence]

This is without exaggeration becoming worse than 2015. How is that even possible? TWICE! (Or thrice if you want to add 2017).

If you remember the 1994 CART/Indy situation with the HRX V8, well, this is the carbon copy of that situation.

That iron block V8 was also not able to keep its internal components placed in the particular housing called "racing engine silhouette wrap" because in its early childhood it was fascinated by hand grenades, therefore it tried to emulate them continuously...

The Honda engineers then picked up every little shards of metal from the track surface to "prevent other manufacturers to acquire the KNOWLEDGE" of that engine. No one ever wanted to be in a 1000 mile radius of that s#itty V8...

Then came 1995 with the HRH and the first wins, and from 1996 Honda conquered the US soil.

There is a philosophy of Honda called Success From Failure. Dunno... For me failure means "development prototype". And when something is finished and ready then it belongs to the racetrack. But not sooner. And it's like a swarm of hungry mosquitoes follows Honda. Where are the healthy human decisions?

It seems that Honda is the only racing engine constructor who simply can not comprehend that you should ONLY go to a duel when you have working weapons. The opponent brings a pistol, Honda brings a piece of iron to hammer & saw & bore something distantly reminiscent of a firearm (later at least a knife, even later a needle), but in the heat of the duel, the motions are clumsy, the blows of the hammer are weak and nothing comes out that we can can call victorious.

In this kind of situation the company even calls its fans to "come, watch us!" and keeps wondering that the fanbase (with some purchasing power, mind you) can not imagine that this company was able to believe to win that duel with a nonfunctional piece of metal...

Then the disgraced company starts to file another piece of metal - with broken arms, one eye, amputated legs and collapsed lungs - because of the opponent's working pistol - and something magical emerges: a masterful weapon which is feared in the whole world. But why they can not spare the ill-/mis-/dis-/non-/un-parts of the equation?

Somehow this major suckage is defining Honda. Or it IS Honda, dunno. But if I were in their place, I'd look for truly detailed self-reflections from my past to learn from it because I wouldn't want to repeat the re-learning phases. They only losing time, money, efforts, resources and most importantly, face value. Fanbase. Sales. Survival. If they self-ID themselves with constant patching, rebuilding, their choice. But no smart kid grabs a glowing red piece of metal twice with bare hands... Even when they hastily try to fabricate a weapon from it...

[ScottB]

I think it comes from the reason they say they go racing; they want internal staff to learn, develop and deliver, rather than hire in external experts or, it seems, even move staff who do have the skills back from new projects to go again. Presumably they consider this worth the pain of having a crappy engine unless / until the current crop of staff master the problem...

[AR3-GP]

Timo Glock (Sky ) on Aston Martin.
"What is being said is that, in the lower gears -first, second, and third- you can't use all the power because the gearbox can't handle it."

It is not only the PU.

[auem123]

This is without exaggeration becoming worse than 2015. How is that even possible? TWICE! (Or thrice if you want to add 2017).

If you remember the 1994 CART/Indy situation with the HRX V8, well, this is the carbon copy of that situation.

That iron block V8 was also not able to keep its internal components placed in the particular housing called "racing engine silhouette wrap" because in its early childhood it was fascinated by hand grenades, therefore it tried to emulate them continuously...

The Honda engineers then picked up every little shards of metal from the track surface to "prevent other manufacturers to acquire the KNOWLEDGE" of that engine. No one ever wanted to be in a 1000 mile radius of that s#itty V8...

Then came 1995 with the HRH and the first wins, and from 1996 Honda conquered the US soil.

There is a philosophy of Honda called Success From Failure. Dunno... For me failure means "development prototype". And when something is finished and ready then it belongs to the racetrack. But not sooner. And it's like a swarm of hungry mosquitoes follows Honda. Where are the healthy human decisions?

It seems that Honda is the only racing engine constructor who simply can not comprehend that you should ONLY go to a duel when you have working weapons. The opponent brings a pistol, Honda brings a piece of iron to hammer & saw & bore something distantly reminiscent of a firearm (later at least a knife, even later a needle), but in the heat of the duel, the motions are clumsy, the blows of the hammer are weak and nothing comes out that we can can call victorious.

In this kind of situation the company even calls its fans to "come, watch us!" and keeps wondering that the fanbase (with some purchasing power, mind you) can not imagine that this company was able to believe to win that duel with a nonfunctional piece of metal...

Then the disgraced company starts to file another piece of metal - with broken arms, one eye, amputated legs and collapsed lungs - because of the opponent's working pistol - and something magical emerges: a masterful weapon which is feared in the whole world. But why they can not spare the ill-/mis-/dis-/non-/un-parts of the equation?

Somehow this major suckage is defining Honda. Or it IS Honda, dunno. But if I were in their place, I'd look for truly detailed self-reflections from my past to learn from it because I wouldn't want to repeat the re-learning phases. They only losing time, money, efforts, resources and most importantly, face value. Fanbase. Sales. Survival. If they self-ID themselves with constant patching, rebuilding, their choice. But no smart kid grabs a glowing red piece of metal twice with bare hands... Even when they hastily try to fabricate a weapon from it...

Problem is, the world evolved around them while they have stuck to their philosophy. Multinational talents are the name and the game of the day and Honda won't accept non Japanese unless they have no other choice.
How seamlessly Audi placed themselves in the midfield rub it more also.
It is so frustrating as a Alonso fan. ...

[Miha_v]

It seems that Honda is the only racing engine constructor who simply can not comprehend that you should ONLY go to a duel when you have working weapons. The opponent brings a pistol, Honda brings a piece of iron to hammer & saw & bore something distantly reminiscent of a firearm (later at least a knife, even later a needle), but in the heat of the duel, the motions are clumsy, the blows of the hammer are weak and nothing comes out that we can can call victorious.

Very well written post. I would sum up their attitude as simply - unprofessional.