2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[Leon Kennedy]

Or probably it will be just like 2023 when someone said “ this is my last race without a podium”…. But let’s stay optimistic

To be fair, Alonso started the year with a car that could fight the Ferraris and Mercedes, and he was told by the Silverstone engineers that the new updates they were bringing would bring downforce levels equivalent to Red Bull. There was no reason for Alonso not to believe them.

This year, however, is an entirely different kettle of fish.

By the way, he said this before the Aston Martin front wing ban. Then there were the wind tunnel calibration problems, which are still a mystery today: At the beginning of the year, they had an excellent calibration, but then suddenly they didn't. In June 2025, they noticed errors when comparing the Mercedes wind tunnel with the internal one. I could be wrong, it's my opinion, but in my opinion someone at that time rowed against the flow.

[diffuser]

Theoretically yes, but practically, in my opinion, no. He joined RBPT on April 23, 2021, and finished gardening in May 2022. But yes, don't you think he still contributed?

Ask Cardile. When he tried to skirt the gardening leave rules to start working for Aston, he found himself in front of a judge and ended up being delayed an extra month.


The 2nd thing is what did he tune ? There was no R&D at Honda in the UK. The IP was all in Japan. No manufacturing, no code, It was a high class Jiffy Lube. They disassemble the PU and reassembled them for the next race replacing parts that were allowed to be replaced. If there was ever a problem the whole PU was shipped to Japan. My money would be on that he started working on the 2026 PU. Whatever that entailed.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but you did well to mention the Cardile case, but I can mention Amr22 who had the same Redbull sidepods for someone's entry before the gardening .

So we have to see how you manage it.

Fallows went to court as well, and the judge sided with RBR, ruling that he couldn’t start before April 2022—nine months after his resignation from RBR in July 2021.

You likely mean the AMR23. You’re not doing your argument any favors by getting the years wrong .

Are you saying that back in July 2021, RBR had the sidepods of their 2023 car in the wind tunnel? In June/July 2021, they were still working full force on their 2021 design and hadn’t even switched focus to 2022—never mind 2023.

Plus the sidepods weren't even the same, AMR kept that Alpine like channel down the top which RBR didn't. More likely scenario is he took what he saw on the 2022 RBR and started with that in the wind tunnel. The AMR23 inlets were not far off the 2022 RBR sidepods inlets.

[SealTheRealDeal]

Ask Cardile. When he tried to skirt the gardening leave rules to start working for Aston, he found himself in front of a judge and ended up being delayed an extra month.


The 2nd thing is what did he tune ? There was no R&D at Honda in the UK. The IP was all in Japan. No manufacturing, no code, It was a high class Jiffy Lube. They disassemble the PU and reassembled them for the next race replacing parts that were allowed to be replaced. If there was ever a problem the whole PU was shipped to Japan. My money would be on that he started working on the 2026 PU. Whatever that entailed.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but you did well to mention the Cardile case, but I can mention Amr22 who had the same Redbull sidepods for someone's entry before the gardening .

So we have to see how you manage it.

Fallows went to court as well, and the judge sided with RBR, ruling that he couldn’t start before April 2022—nine months after his resignation from RBR in July 2021.

You likely mean the AMR23. You’re not doing your argument any favors by getting the years wrong .

Are you saying that back in July 2021, RBR had the sidepods of their 2023 car in the wind tunnel? In June/July 2021, they were still working full force on their 2021 design and hadn’t even switched focus to 2022—never mind 2023.

Plus the sidepods weren't even the same, AMR kept that Alpine like channel down the top which RBR didn't. More likely scenario is he took what he saw on the 2022 RBR and started with that in the wind tunnel. The AMR23 inlets were not far off the 2022 RBR sidepods inlets.

I think he's talking about the AMR22's Spain upgrade, which were *outwardly* almost exact copies of the RB18's sidepods. Red Bull at the time accused Aston of IP theft, but Aston was able to prove it had been working in *a* down-washing concept in parallel with the floating sidepods it started the year with.

[Leon Kennedy]

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but you did well to mention the Cardile case, but I can mention Amr22 who had the same Redbull sidepods for someone's entry before the gardening .

So we have to see how you manage it.

Fallows went to court as well, and the judge sided with RBR, ruling that he couldn’t start before April 2022—nine months after his resignation from RBR in July 2021.

You likely mean the AMR23. You’re not doing your argument any favors by getting the years wrong .

Are you saying that back in July 2021, RBR had the sidepods of their 2023 car in the wind tunnel? In June/July 2021, they were still working full force on their 2021 design and hadn’t even switched focus to 2022—never mind 2023.

Plus the sidepods weren't even the same, AMR kept that Alpine like channel down the top which RBR didn't. More likely scenario is he took what he saw on the 2022 RBR and started with that in the wind tunnel. The AMR23 inlets were not far off the 2022 RBR sidepods inlets.

I think he's talking about the AMR22's Spain upgrade, which were *outwardly* almost exact copies of the RB18's sidepods. Red Bull at the time accused Aston of IP theft, but Aston was able to prove it had been working in *a* down-washing concept in parallel with the floating sidepods it started the year with.

Exactly, in Catalunya they brought the sides practically identical to those of rb18. What changed was the absence of the underbite and the engine cover which was not changed, similar to that of the Ferrari (without the cannons).
What was interesting was that there was also the flow deviation curve on the sides of the sidepods. It was clear inspiration and I remember them saying they had this model in the gallery since before March. But do we also want to remember amr25 with the cobra inlets and who arrived from Ferrari?

In F1, gardening works for me, but not 100%.


Regarding amr23, it was accused of being a green Red Bull, but I agree with you, the inspiration was always Red Bull but there was truly a lot of ingenuity there and also some gray areas. The front wing par excellence, the excavated sidepods(which then made McLaren's fortune from Austria onwards) and the front suspension which had fantastic mechanics.

[FNTC]

[diffuser]

that was good. thx.

[diffuser]

Fallows went to court as well, and the judge sided with RBR, ruling that he couldn’t start before April 2022—nine months after his resignation from RBR in July 2021.

You likely mean the AMR23. You’re not doing your argument any favors by getting the years wrong .

Are you saying that back in July 2021, RBR had the sidepods of their 2023 car in the wind tunnel? In June/July 2021, they were still working full force on their 2021 design and hadn’t even switched focus to 2022—never mind 2023.

Plus the sidepods weren't even the same, AMR kept that Alpine like channel down the top which RBR didn't. More likely scenario is he took what he saw on the 2022 RBR and started with that in the wind tunnel. The AMR23 inlets were not far off the 2022 RBR sidepods inlets.

I think he's talking about the AMR22's Spain upgrade, which were *outwardly* almost exact copies of the RB18's sidepods. Red Bull at the time accused Aston of IP theft, but Aston was able to prove it had been working in *a* down-washing concept in parallel with the floating sidepods it started the year with.

Exactly, in Catalunya they brought the sides practically identical to those of rb18. What changed was the absence of the underbite and the engine cover which was not changed, similar to that of the Ferrari (without the cannons).
What was interesting was that there was also the flow deviation curve on the sides of the sidepods. It was clear inspiration and I remember them saying they had this model in the gallery since before March. But do we also want to remember amr25 with the cobra inlets and who arrived from Ferrari?

In F1, gardening works for me, but not 100%.


Regarding amr23, it was accused of being a green Red Bull, but I agree with you, the inspiration was always Red Bull but there was truly a lot of ingenuity there and also some gray areas. The front wing par excellence, the excavated sidepods(which then made McLaren's fortune from Austria onwards) and the front suspension which had fantastic mechanics.

There will always be people who want to cheat, give information to their old team, or help a new team before actually joining. Formula 1 engineering isn’t just like making toast in the morning and being told where the butter is. This stuff is extremely complicated. It isn’t easy to give advice to a new team when you have no idea where they currently stand.

Yes, there are people with photographic memories who move from team to team — which is exactly why gardening leave exists. You might remember where a team was a year ago, but you don’t know where they’re heading now.

In my opinion, the engineers in Formula 1 have all worked incredibly hard to get where they are. Those people are far less likely to give away or steal knowledge. They understand the value of acquiring knowledge, and they know it represents their own worth. It says more about the people who suggest there is cheating in Formula 1 than it does about the engineers themselves. In other words, people who accuse others of cheating are more likely to be cheaters themselves.

[CHT]

This RBPT debate is settled and doesn’t belong in this thread.

As for AMR, this payment they have to make to AML cannot be good for the finances of the team. Especially not in a strained situation like this.

The only person who may be able to keep AMR going is Ibrahim Khaled Almojel, who is currently director of AMR and have close connection with Saudi investment funds. But I have a feeling that those money committed have already been spent.

You're talking about 50 millions. That's chump change for Sttoll. If he had to he could sell 1% of AMF1 for 100M.

50m is a big sum of money for a team with 291m turnover and loss of 40m a year.
Company is also paying 28m to service its massive loans.

During the year the Group went through a refinancing exercise, resulting in the repayment of the
previous loan which has been replaced with a 10 year agreement to borrow $400m at a fixed rate of
10% interest. The facility has a fixed and floating charge over all current and future assets of AMR GP
Limited (and associated group companies) including a share charge in favour of the lender by all of the
group companies.

According to financial report, both AML and AMR are losing money and heavily in debt and the 1% for 100m is nothing but a left to right pocket inter company transaction valuation. (see below)

Stroll is rich but he is not stupid to throw his own good money at bad to provide entertainment for fans and his son.
Much of what Stroll and investors have invested is risky gamble for future success. For this reason, 2026 will be most critical for the future of the team.

---------------------------------------
The company, Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (the car manufacturer), has recently sold its remaining interests in the Formula One team to AMR GP Holdings Limited, an entity controlled by the team’s executive chairman and majority owner, Lawrence Stroll.

1. Sale of Equity Stake (July 2025)
The Buyer: Lawrence Stroll’s Yew Tree Investments consortium.
The Deal: The carmaker sold its remaining 4.6% minority stake in the F1 team for £110 million ($146 million).
Valuation: This transaction valued the F1 team at approximately £2.4 billion ($3.3 billion)
-------------------------------------------

[diffuser]

The only person who may be able to keep AMR going is Ibrahim Khaled Almojel, who is currently director of AMR and have close connection with Saudi investment funds. But I have a feeling that those money committed have already been spent.

You're talking about 50 millions. That's chump change for Sttoll. If he had to he could sell 1% of AMF1 for 100M.

50m is a big sum of money for a team with 291m turnover and loss of 40m a year.
Company is also paying 28m to service its massive loans.

During the year the Group went through a refinancing exercise, resulting in the repayment of the
previous loan which has been replaced with a 10 year agreement to borrow $400m at a fixed rate of
10% interest. The facility has a fixed and floating charge over all current and future assets of AMR GP
Limited (and associated group companies) including a share charge in favour of the lender by all of the
group companies.

According to financial report, both AML and AMR are losing money and heavily in debt and the 1% for 100m is nothing but a left to right pocket inter company transaction valuation. (see below)

Stroll is rich but he is not stupid to throw his own good money at bad to provide entertainment for fans and his son.
Much of what Stroll and investors have invested is risky gamble for future success. For this reason, 2026 will be most critical for the future of the team.

---------------------------------------
The company, Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (the car manufacturer), has recently sold its remaining interests in the Formula One team to AMR GP Holdings Limited, an entity controlled by the team’s executive chairman and majority owner, Lawrence Stroll.

1. Sale of Equity Stake (July 2025)
The Buyer: Lawrence Stroll’s Yew Tree Investments consortium.
The Deal: The carmaker sold its remaining 4.6% minority stake in the F1 team for £110 million ($146 million).
Valuation: This transaction valued the F1 team at approximately £2.4 billion ($3.3 billion)
-------------------------------------------

He has to just stop the turn over.

[CHT]

t

He has to just stop the turn over.

Turnover is simply gross sales revenue or income for the team, which consist mainly sponsorship, prize money, merchandize sales etc. And this is the lifeblood for F1 team survival. And 50m for a team is not a small sum.
Its enough to pay for 2.5 Alonso for a year.

[diffuser]

t

He has to just stop the turn over.

Turnover is simply gross sales revenue or income for the team, which consist mainly sponsorship, prize money, merchandize sales etc. And this is the lifeblood for F1 team survival. And 50m for a team is not a small sum.
Its enough to pay for 2.5 Alonso for a year.

I meant the personel turnover. How many people have they had on gardening leave over the last 3 years? They need to stop having people being payed to stay home. It does go on tge AMF1 books but is on the Laguna.

[CHT]

t

He has to just stop the turn over.

Turnover is simply gross sales revenue or income for the team, which consist mainly sponsorship, prize money, merchandize sales etc. And this is the lifeblood for F1 team survival. And 50m for a team is not a small sum.
Its enough to pay for 2.5 Alonso for a year.

I meant the personel turnover. How many people have they had on gardening leave over the last 3 years? They need to stop having people being payed to stay home. It does go on tge AMF1 books but is on the Laguna.

Most of past AMR F1 key figures like Martin Whitmarsh and Andrew Cowell were employed under AMR PERFORMANCE GROUP LIMITED. But now the company is led by lawyers investors, owner, billionaire as directors.

What is yet to be seen is Adrian Newey taking up directorship and becoming a partner for AMR.

[diffuser]

t

Turnover is simply gross sales revenue or income for the team, which consist mainly sponsorship, prize money, merchandize sales etc. And this is the lifeblood for F1 team survival. And 50m for a team is not a small sum.
Its enough to pay for 2.5 Alonso for a year.

I meant the personel turnover. How many people have they had on gardening leave over the last 3 years? They need to stop having people being payed to stay home. It does go on tge AMF1 books but is on the Laguna.

Most of past AMR F1 key figures like Martin Whitmarsh and Andrew Cowell were employed under AMR PERFORMANCE GROUP LIMITED. But now the company is led by lawyers investors, owner, billionaire as directors.

What is yet to be seen is Adrian Newey taking up directorship and becoming a partner for AMR.

I read that it was true of Whitmarsh originally but they moved his salary over to AMF1 in 2022 or 2023. As far as Cowell is concerned he is still working for AMF1, just in Japan. Anyways does the performance group fall under Laguna?

[CHT]

I meant the personel turnover. How many people have they had on gardening leave over the last 3 years? They need to stop having people being payed to stay home. It does go on tge AMF1 books but is on the Laguna.

Most of past AMR F1 key figures like Martin Whitmarsh and Andrew Cowell were employed under AMR PERFORMANCE GROUP LIMITED. But now the company is led by lawyers investors, owner, billionaire as directors.

What is yet to be seen is Adrian Newey taking up directorship and becoming a partner for AMR.

I read that it was true of Whitmarsh originally but they moved his salary over to AMF1 in 2022 or 2023. As far as Cowell is concerned he is still working for AMF1, just in Japan. Anyways does the performance group fall under Laguna?

AMR Performance Group is not under the same umbrella as Aston Martin Lagonda.

AMR Performance Group parent company is Racing Point UK Holdings Limited

Cowell resigned or terminated as director of the company on 31 Dec 2025.
Putting him as Chief Strategy Officer to handle AMR and Honda relationship is simply a way to keep him in the company to serve out his notice, perhaps 6 months?

[diffuser]

Most of past AMR F1 key figures like Martin Whitmarsh and Andrew Cowell were employed under AMR PERFORMANCE GROUP LIMITED. But now the company is led by lawyers investors, owner, billionaire as directors.

What is yet to be seen is Adrian Newey taking up directorship and becoming a partner for AMR.

I read that it was true of Whitmarsh originally but they moved his salary over to AMF1 in 2022 or 2023. As far as Cowell is concerned he is still working for AMF1, just in Japan. Anyways does the performance group fall under Laguna?

AMR Performance Group is not under the same umbrella as Aston Martin Lagonda.

AMR Performance Group parent company is Racing Point UK Holdings Limited

Cowell resigned or terminated as director of the company on 31 Dec 2025.
Putting him as Chief Strategy Officer to handle AMR and Honda relationship is simply a way to keep him in the company to serve out his notice, perhaps 6 months?

Apparently not... https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1089 ... shuffle