2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[diffuser]

AFAIK, Wasari said in the Honda forum that for them to completely fix the vibrations, they have to revise the engine mounts aka new chassis, which is not something that has happened yet. It might not happen in this season in general...

Where the motor mounts to the chassis is a standard across F1. Teams are forced to use that mounting, so that they can switch PU easily. The ICE mounts are what connect the chassis to to the ICE. Since the chassis side is a standard, the mounts have to be changed on the ICE side. That was supposed to have been done for this upgrade ICE.

[F1RAM]

Those vibrations weren't there in FP. As per THE RACE article, it could have been due to grounding of rears due to the failed SM.
Alonso lost like 2.3s just in the run to T1.

[GoranF1]

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN8Ltq4Ce/

[etusch]

[mzso]

Sigh. Four weeks of anticipation for this to happen.

At what point do we start to question whether Newey really is still as good as everyone thinks? Perhaps his approach no longer works as well as it once did.

3-4 years.

[hollus]

I think that they have now, for the first time, the car they were supposed to have in February. And still overweight.
Winter testing starts now for them, it is the first time that the chassis can push the engine and the first time that the engine can push the chassis.
So new problems pop up now, including software at the pushing end.
It will take time for the package, drivers included, to extract whatever performance is there.

[Redragon]

if they are not 0.5 to 0.7s to pole and top ten by the end of the year. 2027 would be another catch up year. But what they did on 2023 give me some hope that they can manage to do it.

[CHT]

The result today only goes to show that other F1 teams are also pushing flat out and upgrading their cars, so its not just Newey and Honda doing all the development. When a team start the season on wrong foot, it will almost be impossible to recover and compete for wins.

I read that AMR has got a new America investor onboard and I think this is likely to be a cash injection exercise.
The bigger question is how long will Alonso and Newey be willing to remain in the team, and how long can AMR continue to pay them to stay.

[diffuser]

The result today only goes to show that other F1 teams are also pushing flat out and upgrading their cars, so its not just Newey and Honda doing all the development. When a team start the season on wrong foot, it will almost be impossible to recover and compete for wins.

I read that AMR has got a new America investor onboard and I think this is likely to be a cash injection exercise.
The bigger question is how long will Alonso and Newey be willing to remain in the team, and how long can AMR continue to pay them to stay.

Today is what happens when you have a ICE update during a Sprint weekend.

[Xyz22]

The result today only goes to show that other F1 teams are also pushing flat out and upgrading their cars, so its not just Newey and Honda doing all the development. When a team start the season on wrong foot, it will almost be impossible to recover and compete for wins.

I read that AMR has got a new America investor onboard and I think this is likely to be a cash injection exercise.
The bigger question is how long will Alonso and Newey be willing to remain in the team, and how long can AMR continue to pay them to stay.

Newey has an insane ego. If AM will let him do his job as he wants he will do everything to make the car the best one. There is a lot of work to do, in every area. This team just wasn't ready to be a factory team and the same is true for Honda as an engine supplier. It's clear that both started late the development and were exposed. Next year i'm expecting a huge improvement.

[PlatinumZealot]

Newey is not going until he satisfactorily completes his project at AM. A race winning team.

Saying that... Gawd was sprint qualy embarrasing!

[CHT]

Newey is not going until he satisfactorily completes his project at AM. A race winning team.

Saying that... Gawd was sprint qualy embarrasing!

Lawrence Stroll strategy for AMR is to borrow money and spend big in building world class facilities, wind tunnel, hire a WDC along side his son, an exclusive winning engine supplier, the best F1 designer to take advantage of regulation change and wait for winning outcome.

This has proven to be a massive disappointment and the mounting debt repayment for AMR is going to add even more pressure to the team to deliver quick success.

The next round of technical regulation change will be 2030, which mean by 2029, almost all teams expect those still fighting for 2029 championship, will switch to new car development. For AMR, missing out on 2026 completely is a disaster, making a very hard for AMR to recover. And for a team with championship ambition, AMR will likely to start on 2030 cars in 2028. So 2027 is perhaps the only year which AMR can really turn things around.

As we can see, the current F1 grid is really competitive, with Ferrari, Merc, Mclaren RBR, and very soon Audi I think, to be competing at the front. And the only way for AMR to do it better than the rest is if Honda can deliver something exceptional that is exclusive to AMR only.

Newey is 67 this year, perhaps the oldest full time technical director on the grid right now. Can AN still continue this role for 2030 regulation? I honestly doubt so unless AMR is already winning.

[V10FURY]

What was that I watched today? I was expecting a Q2 result and 12-13th for the team, and yet Alonso is dead last! Vibrations, poor power delivery, wing not working properly, and 3 seconds off the pace. Simply unacceptable at this point of the season, with this amount of talent and money being thrown at this team. They better get their act together for main qualifying tomorrow, as this is a diabolical start to the race weekend.

[Waz]

How is it that so many here can't separate reliability issues from failing development?

Acting like it's the first time we have ever seen a car with problems in Q. What's happening with this forum?

[collindsilva]

How is it that so many here can't separate reliability issues from failing development?

Acting like it's the first time we have ever seen a car with problems in Q. What's happening with this forum?

Are these reliability issues linked to new updates received.
There was no mentioned of any issues during FP1, seems strange so many of them popping up during the SQ