2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[Badger]

I have yet to see any evidence this is a gearbox issue. Given the official statements from Honda and the reporting about Newey it seems like this is a hybrid systems issue. That doesn't absolve Aston Martin completely though, if they weren't so late with their car they would have had way more time to sort these issues. The chassis also doesn't look particularly good on track, regardless of any power deficit.

[diffuser]

I have yet to see any evidence this is a gearbox issue. Given the official statements from Honda and the reporting about Newey it seems like this is a hybrid systems issue. That doesn't absolve Aston Martin completely though, if they weren't so late with their car they would have had way more time to sort these issues. The chassis also doesn't look particularly good on track, regardless of any power deficit.

There is a lot of speculation being turned into hard evidence in here.

[Badger]

I have yet to see any evidence this is a gearbox issue. Given the official statements from Honda and the reporting about Newey it seems like this is a hybrid systems issue. That doesn't absolve Aston Martin completely though, if they weren't so late with their car they would have had way more time to sort these issues. The chassis also doesn't look particularly good on track, regardless of any power deficit.

There is a lot of speculation being turned into hard evidence in here.

Yup, but what we know for sure is they had a battery issue, and they were limited in running because they were running out of spares. And as far as credible reporting goes it seems pretty solid that there's an issue with regenerating energy.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Hey, here's a silver lining.

If Aston have an absolute knightmare of a first half of the season, imagine what they can do with all the extra resource allowance they'd get as a result!!

[De Wet]

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/gary ... da-needed/


Nice article by Gary Anderson.

[dren]

What was distinctive was that there were two tiers of orange square objects sitting in front of the internal combustion engine (ICE). This orange box is the battery (Energy Store = ES) and the control electronics (CE), which is the electronic device that controls the power unit. Until last year, these two were laid out in front and back and were one tier.

Why did it become a second tier? According to the head of development, Tetsushi Tsunoda, the large project leader (LPL), revealed that there was a request from the team.

"As we proceeded with the development of the new car, the team requested that it be compact and shorten (the overall length) as much as possible, so we decided to make it a two-stage car."

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/1286322?all

There was a "request" last year to change the energy store. Who joined Aston Martin last year? Adrian Newey. Fast forward to 2026, Honda having energy store problems.

This is Adrian Newey's signature. Push everything to the last minute, push packaging to the brink, push the PU manufacturer to the limit, and create reliability problems. He is a brilliant engineer, but he is also known for causing great strife to technical partners.

I don't agree with people trying to dump this solely on Honda and imo the relationship is already broken. Newey is uncompromising and has little patience when Honda needed the patience that was shown by Franz Tost in 2018. It is Newey's words that leaked from the F1 commission and further damaged Honda's reputation. The media and fans have been relentless and 1-sided in blaming Honda but it is because they don't understand how Formula 1 works.

This makes sense to me. Late changes after AN was brought in. We are seeing teething issues. I expect the PU to come good and be the class of the field.

[dren]

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/gary ... da-needed/


Nice article by Gary Anderson.

It's a nice story, but Honda and AM clearly expected problems prior to testing hence the reduced/detuned running they did. It's not like Honda threw AM a PU and said "see ya", and needed a kick in the ass to get going, as Gary thinks, cause it happened to him decades ago.

[Badger]

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/gary ... da-needed/


Nice article by Gary Anderson.

It's a nice story, but Honda and AM clearly expected problems prior to testing hence the reduced/detuned running they did. It's not like Honda threw AM a PU and said "see ya", and needed a kick in the ass to get going, as Gary thinks, cause it happened to him decades ago.

Why would they have expected problems? They reduced the running as a reaction to problems arising, it was hardly the plan coming into testing to drive only 400 laps in total.

Also, every manufacturer prior to testing was fumbling in the dark about their performance. You may be satisfied with your internal goals but you never know the full picture of what others are doing. Now Honda knows it's behind, and by how much, that should kick them into high gear to try and catch up.

[McG]

If you had the slightest idea of the magnitude of the utter BS you are spreading...

Right back at you. You're just the standard delusional forum poster. Grow up.

This is the moment when an entire forum is looking at you with a gentle smile. And your every word is revealing your true self more and more. So, the stage is yours, cameras are rolling.

Alright Bonce calm down. You're just digging yourself a deeper hole. My posts have started to make people realise the truth and it obviously hurts some people, so again, grow up.

[McG]

End of season predictions for where AM will be? Bookmarking this page.

[Leon Kennedy]

For me, obviously I could be wrong, I have no proof, the user who linked the last-minute modification made by Honda to create an anti-lag system is right.

Honda itself admitted to having problems and it was its fault; they ran out of spare parts in Bahrain. Why say it's not to blame? If they do it themselves. The gearbox is also a problem in my opinion (I still think that's why the Stroll crashed), but it's a minor issue, folks. It's been said everywhere that it lacks power.


P.s McLaren 2017 had a really great chassis, just look at the performance on slow tracks, simply the packaging was also thanks to Honda, in fact with the Renault engine they couldn't do the same.

[Brahmal]

I can't help but shake a very specific thought seeing all this.

Newey being the Team Principle may not actually be a good thing.

Let me explain:

Either he is not able to give his full attention to the car development due to the other demands placed on a TP...

OR

He actually needs someone to reign in his ideas a little bit and does not have that now.

The more I see of this car, the more it reminds me of the MP4/18 where Newey designed a car so extreme that it was never able to fulfill its theoretical potential.

I hope I'm wrong.

It feels like there's a lot of hubris going on over there from multiple sources, including Newey. And there's no guarantee that it'll get better anytime soon! Cue Michael Jackson popcorn meme, but I feel bad for Fernando and Lance at least. They didn't ask for this, but will bear the brunt of other people's screw-ups.

[diffuser]

What was distinctive was that there were two tiers of orange square objects sitting in front of the internal combustion engine (ICE). This orange box is the battery (Energy Store = ES) and the control electronics (CE), which is the electronic device that controls the power unit. Until last year, these two were laid out in front and back and were one tier.

Why did it become a second tier? According to the head of development, Tetsushi Tsunoda, the large project leader (LPL), revealed that there was a request from the team.

"As we proceeded with the development of the new car, the team requested that it be compact and shorten (the overall length) as much as possible, so we decided to make it a two-stage car."

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/1286322?all

There was a "request" last year to change the energy store. Who joined Aston Martin last year? Adrian Newey. Fast forward to 2026, Honda having energy store problems.

This is Adrian Newey's signature. Push everything to the last minute, push packaging to the brink, push the PU manufacturer to the limit, and create reliability problems. He is a brilliant engineer, but he is also known for causing great strife to technical partners.

I don't agree with people trying to dump this solely on Honda and imo the relationship is already broken. Newey is uncompromising and has little patience when Honda needed the patience that was shown by Franz Tost in 2018. It is Newey's words that leaked from the F1 commission and further damaged Honda's reputation. The media and fans have been relentless and 1-sided in blaming Honda but it is because they don't understand how Formula 1 works.

This makes sense to me. Late changes after AN was brought in. We are seeing teething issues. I expect the PU to come good and be the class of the field.

1 - The regs did move the MGU-K from the back to the front of PU, which is where it is in the Orange picture.
2 - The MGU-K is significantly bigger that it was a year ago, therefore, taking up more space.
3 - That's a promotional picture, it doesn't mean that's the way it's actually placed.

I don't think anybody is trying to blame soley Honda on this. The fact is though the PU problems have now cause the chassis to fall further behind and it was already significantly behind.

So Aston didn't help itself by being behind and now Honda being behind has further hindered the Chassis. They're not helping each other.

We'll see how it goes in the FPs in Australia but I presume it's gonna be a disaster. I give them a 10% of finishing the race. Something will fail whether it is the PU, the gearbox, some suspension part, fill in the blank with you choice.

[dren]

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/gary ... da-needed/


Nice article by Gary Anderson.

It's a nice story, but Honda and AM clearly expected problems prior to testing hence the reduced/detuned running they did. It's not like Honda threw AM a PU and said "see ya", and needed a kick in the ass to get going, as Gary thinks, cause it happened to him decades ago.

Why would they have expected problems? They reduced the running as a reaction to problems arising, it was hardly the plan coming into testing to drive only 400 laps in total.

Also, every manufacturer prior to testing was fumbling in the dark about their performance. You may be satisfied with your internal goals but you never know the full picture of what others are doing. Now Honda knows it's behind, and by how much, that should kick them into high gear to try and catch up.

AM alerted teams prior to ever running in testing that they would be running at reduced speed, hence they expected issues/knew of issues prior to testing.

[diffuser]

It's a nice story, but Honda and AM clearly expected problems prior to testing hence the reduced/detuned running they did. It's not like Honda threw AM a PU and said "see ya", and needed a kick in the ass to get going, as Gary thinks, cause it happened to him decades ago.

Why would they have expected problems? They reduced the running as a reaction to problems arising, it was hardly the plan coming into testing to drive only 400 laps in total.

Also, every manufacturer prior to testing was fumbling in the dark about their performance. You may be satisfied with your internal goals but you never know the full picture of what others are doing. Now Honda knows it's behind, and by how much, that should kick them into high gear to try and catch up.

AM alerted teams prior to ever running in testing that they would be running at reduced speed, hence they expected issues/knew of issues prior to testing.

True dat!

Wonder if it was cause of the PU or chassis