2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[diffuser]

Sometimes we're like in a labyrinth, going around in circles. Aston's transmission also has issues because it's their first time producing them. Even though Red Bull has been own gearbox for years, and they are top-class technical team, they sometimes experience synchronization and downshifting issues.
This season, Aston's first transmission, and their first transmission coincide with a season where downshifting is more important than ever. Seamless transmissions were originally designed for perfect upshifting as the primary function, and downshifting wasn't as crucial as upshifting. But now, downshifting is also important.

I always thought the problem was with the drivability and they just blamed the gearbox to deflect from adding more pressure on Honda.

Just because Aston Martin had never made gearboxes before doesn’t mean the guy they brought over from Mercedes hadn’t been designing them for Mercedes for 20 years. The formula for these gearboxes hasn’t changed. They’re pretty much a small evolution of the gearbox F1 has been using since 2015.

That doesn’t mean I’m right; it just means I think I’m right. The fact that the new, updated gearbox might not have changed fundamentally and was just made lighter would add credence to that. If they fix the drivability at Monza/future races, while using the same lighter gearbox, that would add even further credence to it.

[etusch]

If you ask me, the fact that a new gearbox is needed shows that the previous one had shortcomings. The guy who's been designing gearboxes for F1 for 20 years also has at least 20 years of experience with lightweight design. We can't assume that the only update to this gearbox is weight reduction.
Aside from that, I wonder if they'll do anything about the ratios as well? I wish we could get more information.

[diffuser]

I removed everything cause i didn't want to make it 100 page reply.

You seem to think this is really important. I think it's just business. I'm not sure why he's doing this and nor do I really care. I'm in it for the racing and not the finances. I can see it isn't holding back the track relevant investments and that's all I really care about. In fact it's the opposite he's spent $200 million on brand new state of the art infrastructure.

[GhostF1]

This gearbox discussion, it probably had some merit early on in the season with a couple of issues rearing their head, but the team have said they're happy with it but that it's just a bit heavy and they're working on reducing its weight, so any big issues have probably been sorted. So just from the team saying that I can't see it being a source of any significant pace loss really.

Genuine basic question to see where we are in general, just for fun! as we don't have enough info to really know at this stage.
We had a deficit of 2.25s per lap in average race pace to the podium finishers in Zandvoort. What's everyone's very basic but personal impression of the split between chassis and PU of that deficit with the info we have? (understanding the PU with driveability issues will hinder the chassis' true performance, and the chassis also being 14kg overweight still). Eg;
PU - 0.0 seconds
Chassis - 0.0 seconds

Just a thought experiment.

What makes this more interesting is Binotto believes a majority of the deficit for Audi to the top teams is their PU and they were approx. 1.5s behind in race pace at Zandvoort.

[KimiRai]

let's see... i think Benson said aston hoped zandvoort aduo would reduce the gap from 1.5 seconds to 1 second according to team sources. if that initial assessment were true, considering performance in zandvoort and what has been rumored of spec 2 so far, i would put it about 1.2 seconds at the moment. so 1.2s engine and 1.05s chassis. pretty equal. honda should have 0.2s of relatively quick potential and aston 0.25s from weight reduction. again, pretty equal.

btw, racing bulls has just tested a macarena-style rear wing in their filming day at imola. they are the first midfield team to do so, aston need to follow suit. 2027 preseason testing at the very latest.

[diffuser]

This gearbox discussion, it probably had some merit early on in the season with a couple of issues rearing their head, but the team have said they're happy with it but that it's just a bit heavy and they're working on reducing its weight, so any big issues have probably been sorted. So just from the team saying that I can't see it being a source of any significant pace loss really.

Genuine basic question to see where we are in general, just for fun! as we don't have enough info to really know at this stage.
We had a deficit of 2.25s per lap in average race pace to the podium finishers in Zandvoort. What's everyone's very basic but personal impression of the split between chassis and PU of that deficit with the info we have? (understanding the PU with driveability issues will hinder the chassis' true performance, and the chassis also being 14kg overweight still). Eg;
PU - 0.0 seconds
Chassis - 0.0 seconds

Just a thought experiment.

What makes this more interesting is Binotto believes a majority of the deficit for Audi to the top teams is their PU and they were approx. 1.5s behind in race pace at Zandvoort.

Who am I to argue with Binotto?

[GhostF1]

This gearbox discussion, it probably had some merit early on in the season with a couple of issues rearing their head, but the team have said they're happy with it but that it's just a bit heavy and they're working on reducing its weight, so any big issues have probably been sorted. So just from the team saying that I can't see it being a source of any significant pace loss really.

Genuine basic question to see where we are in general, just for fun! as we don't have enough info to really know at this stage.
We had a deficit of 2.25s per lap in average race pace to the podium finishers in Zandvoort. What's everyone's very basic but personal impression of the split between chassis and PU of that deficit with the info we have? (understanding the PU with driveability issues will hinder the chassis' true performance, and the chassis also being 14kg overweight still). Eg;
PU - 0.0 seconds
Chassis - 0.0 seconds

Just a thought experiment.

What makes this more interesting is Binotto believes a majority of the deficit for Audi to the top teams is their PU and they were approx. 1.5s behind in race pace at Zandvoort.

Who am I to argue with Binotto?

Who's arguing? I believe what he's saying. It would imply he believes their PU is 0.7-1.0 behind, so in context of Aston Honda, it raises interesting perspectives.

[Otromundo]

this has some stuff about driveabilty in this new engine formula that is pretty interesting to me

This is starting to look... closer to magic and enchantments... than to mechanics (that clean science which seemed to be the only exact one, alongside mathematics). Many thanks for the video.

[GhostF1]

let's see... i think Benson said aston hoped zandvoort aduo would reduce the gap from 1.5 seconds to 1 second according to team sources. if that initial assessment were true, considering performance in zandvoort and what has been rumored of spec 2 so far, i would put it about 1.2 seconds at the moment. so 1.2s engine and 1.05s chassis. pretty equal. honda should have 0.2s of relatively quick potential and aston 0.25s from weight reduction. again, pretty equal.

btw, racing bulls has just tested a macarena-style rear wing in their filming day at imola. they are the first midfield team to do so, aston need to follow suit. 2027 preseason testing at the very latest.

Yeah agreed. I think this is a fairly realistic take. I imagine there's a tenth or two remaining in the engine itself for outright performance still to come, and another couple just from driveability improvements like those they made over the last 3 races on the Spec 1 which will unlock the chassis further. Add another 0.2-0.3 from weight reduction De la Rosa mentioned, we could see another 0.5-0.7+ gain being in the realms of feasible as they head further into the second half of the season.

[diffuser]

This gearbox discussion, it probably had some merit early on in the season with a couple of issues rearing their head, but the team have said they're happy with it but that it's just a bit heavy and they're working on reducing its weight, so any big issues have probably been sorted. So just from the team saying that I can't see it being a source of any significant pace loss really.

Genuine basic question to see where we are in general, just for fun! as we don't have enough info to really know at this stage.
We had a deficit of 2.25s per lap in average race pace to the podium finishers in Zandvoort. What's everyone's very basic but personal impression of the split between chassis and PU of that deficit with the info we have? (understanding the PU with driveability issues will hinder the chassis' true performance, and the chassis also being 14kg overweight still). Eg;
PU - 0.0 seconds
Chassis - 0.0 seconds

Just a thought experiment.

What makes this more interesting is Binotto believes a majority of the deficit for Audi to the top teams is their PU and they were approx. 1.5s behind in race pace at Zandvoort.

Who am I to argue with Binotto?

Who's arguing? I believe what he's saying. It would imply he believes their PU is 0.7-1.0 behind, so in context of Aston Honda, it raises interesting perspectives.

It's an expression, it means Binotto too smart for me to doubt what he says.

[collindsilva]

Racing Bulls tested the macarena-style rear wing for the filming day, possible debut in next races, Any idea if AMR would bring similar for this year..

[zoroastar]

This gearbox discussion, it probably had some merit early on in the season with a couple of issues rearing their head, but the team have said they're happy with it but that it's just a bit heavy and they're working on reducing its weight, so any big issues have probably been sorted. So just from the team saying that I can't see it being a source of any significant pace loss really.

Genuine basic question to see where we are in general, just for fun! as we don't have enough info to really know at this stage.
We had a deficit of 2.25s per lap in average race pace to the podium finishers in Zandvoort. What's everyone's very basic but personal impression of the split between chassis and PU of that deficit with the info we have? (understanding the PU with driveability issues will hinder the chassis' true performance, and the chassis also being 14kg overweight still). Eg;
PU - 0.0 seconds
Chassis - 0.0 seconds

Just a thought experiment.

What makes this more interesting is Binotto believes a majority of the deficit for Audi to the top teams is their PU and they were approx. 1.5s behind in race pace at Zandvoort.

i wonder how much faster their laptimes woulda been if they ran a 2 stop like everyone else. less lap time, but possibly longer race time.

[mzso]

Watanabe recently was keen to mention that they've rehired engineers, brought back some of Red Bull era people back to work, and that they know the path to success and will try to shorten the time as quick as they can. Not sure if both pieces of information are disconnected. Very hopeful news in any case from Watanabe.

Orihara was smiling before the weekend (even a little playful with that sign to the media ) but his face was a little more serious afterwards. ALO, STR, Krack and Newey have been diplomatic but reading between the lines I would say they are not yet satisfied with Honda's spec 2 so far. IMO only a pressure act for now, I think not being a customer is plan A, they want Honda to fully commit and recover as quick as possible. As we all do, and as Honda wants the chassis to recover too.

(all of this is just an opinion, and my read might very well be wrong)

They should have done this in 2023, when they decided to stay. Sigh...
Now that really-really everyone who's needed is (back) in their place hopefully they can catch up close to Mercedes by the first ADUO upgrade next year.

Well rumours about Aston Martin going back to Mercedes engines for 2028. Depending on Hondas progression have started.

they were 4 second behind at the start of season they found some perfomance great but you cant put all the blame on pu.i still reiterate aston had merc pu before and what did they achieve with it honda meanwhile was winning championships.as for honda there approach to f1 is not compatible with the team they race with ,they are always stubborn and insist of using f1 as learning rope for there young engineers ,if thats how they want to roll they should not have sold their team to Brawn and their drivers would not be suffering looking for seats somewhere.they should get serious and buy williams

At this moment in time the PU seems to be the majority of the gap.

[Bill]

Watanabe recently was keen to mention that they've rehired engineers, brought back some of Red Bull era people back to work, and that they know the path to success and will try to shorten the time as quick as they can. Not sure if both pieces of information are disconnected. Very hopeful news in any case from Watanabe.

Orihara was smiling before the weekend (even a little playful with that sign to the media ) but his face was a little more serious afterwards. ALO, STR, Krack and Newey have been diplomatic but reading between the lines I would say they are not yet satisfied with Honda's spec 2 so far. IMO only a pressure act for now, I think not being a customer is plan A, they want Honda to fully commit and recover as quick as possible. As we all do, and as Honda wants the chassis to recover too.

(all of this is just an opinion, and my read might very well be wrong)

They should have done this in 2023, when they decided to stay. Sigh...
Now that really-really everyone who's needed is (back) in their place hopefully they can catch up close to Mercedes by the first ADUO upgrade next year.

Well rumours about Aston Martin going back to Mercedes engines for 2028. Depending on Hondas progression have started.

they were 4 second behind at the start of season they found some perfomance great but you cant put all the blame on pu.i still reiterate aston had merc pu before and what did they achieve with it honda meanwhile was winning championships.as for honda there approach to f1 is not compatible with the team they race with ,they are always stubborn and insist of using f1 as learning rope for there young engineers ,if thats how they want to roll they should not have sold their team to Brawn and their drivers would not be suffering looking for seats somewhere.they should get serious and buy williams
[/quote
At this moment in time the PU seems to be the majority of the gap.

aston went the honda route because they saw the benefits of being a work team.newey cannot dictate how merc should layout there pu to benefit their aero and chassis ,merc would not lend the tools to help solve vibration and other issues ,the gearbox will not be tailormade for Aston car.Aston and Honda are a team so these division are just media stirring the pot for clicks

[Bill]

Watanabe recently was keen to mention that they've rehired engineers, brought back some of Red Bull era people back to work, and that they know the path to success and will try to shorten the time as quick as they can. Not sure if both pieces of information are disconnected. Very hopeful news in any case from Watanabe.

Orihara was smiling before the weekend (even a little playful with that sign to the media ) but his face was a little more serious afterwards. ALO, STR, Krack and Newey have been diplomatic but reading between the lines I would say they are not yet satisfied with Honda's spec 2 so far. IMO only a pressure act for now, I think not being a customer is plan A, they want Honda to fully commit and recover as quick as possible. As we all do, and as Honda wants the chassis to recover too.

(all of this is just an opinion, and my read might very well be wrong)

They should have done this in 2023, when they decided to stay. Sigh...
Now that really-really everyone who's needed is (back) in their place hopefully they can catch up close to Mercedes by the first ADUO upgrade next year.

they were 4 second behind at the start of season they found some perfomance great but you cant put all the blame on pu.i still reiterate aston had merc pu before and what did they achieve with it honda meanwhile was winning championships.as for honda there approach to f1 is not compatible with the team they race with ,they are always stubborn and insist of using f1 as learning rope for there young engineers ,if thats how they want to roll they should not have sold their team to Brawn and their drivers would not be suffering looking for seats somewhere.they should get serious and buy williams
[/quote
At this moment in time the PU seems to be the majority of the gap.

aston went the honda route because they saw the benefits of being a work team.newey cannot dictate how merc should layout there pu to benefit their aero and chassis ,merc would not lend the tools to help solve vibration and other issues ,the gearbox will not be tailormade for Aston car.Aston and Honda are a team so these division are just media stirring the pot for clicks

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