2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[ScottB]

Aston Martin is serious about establishing itself as a elite team...

Adrian Newey
Andy Cowell
Bob Bell
Enrico Cardile (formerly at Ferrari F1)
Jonathan Wheatley
Luca Furbatto

They are now designing and building their own gearbox and rear suspension in-house for the first time since 2008, ending its long-standing reliance on Mercedes-supplied components.

All the pieces are coming together and with Honda improvements throughout the season they should be moving up the grid this season.

Hopefully by Spa they'll be inside the top 10. By the U.S. Grand Prix in Texas a 5th or 6th place ?

Aston Martin are acting like a kid playing Football Manager with a money cheat, which hey, is pretty much what life as a billionaire must be!

Assembling an all star cast of bosses with overlapping roles, some hired to replace the others etc etc is not necessarily how you build a team, and here things are.

This team won't be scoring points on merit this year.

[API]

Will they have to take new PUs in Japan if Honda has done something to solve the vibrations? This can't be a "software patch"?

I think they will adjust the motor and battery mounts, there is a lot of time now, they will solve a lot of things.

Whether it will be enough, we will see...

[toyotaworn]

Luca Furbatto I can't speak too. He had spent time at torro rosso, Newey is likely familiar with him. So maybe, he was put in a position above his ability. You'd think if he was a problem employee, he'd already be over with Bell.

Bob moving was more related with cost-cap as he had role away from the car development. Furbatto is still around because since he joined AM the Engineering side of the business was not a real factor on the car performance as it was 80% performance based on Aerodynamics.
This year was the one where he had to deliver the work done during the last 3 years on the chassis, PU and Honda liaison and before accountability points on his direction blamed everyone under him, some those 8 firings at the beginning of the year, including Akio Haga.

[AR3-GP]

Jak Crawford will drive FP1 in place of Alonso. Sounds like they are not expecting much out of the weekend.

[NAPI10]

Jak Crawford will drive FP1 in place of Alonso. Sounds like they are not expecting much out of the weekend.

Lance is hypersensitive to vibrations (asking people to pray n all) and being a Samurai,Alonso is immume to everthing hence AM need a third driver to provide feedback

[V10FURY]

Jak Crawford will drive FP1 in place of Alonso. Sounds like they are not expecting much out of the weekend.

Yeah I agree as this seems very early in the season to give Crawford a go. Alonso might be thinking hard about this season with his baby due shortly. Let’s see how many laps Jak gets to circulate in FP1 as it might not be very many if they haven’t fixed the vibrations.

[Sasha]

There is alot going on behind the scenes.
F1 has problem that only can be fixed if they allow Honda do all the upgrades needed.
It would be for the better of all.

Even when the vibrations are solved,Honda has another problem.
The lowest CR of all the PU on the grid.
16-1

[Rikrikrik]

The fact that Crawford is driving in FP1 in Japan already says a lot about Honda's solutions... it won't change absolutely anything, I think it's very naive to believe that anything will change in Japan (I don't think much will change this season either). It wouldn't be the first, and maybe not even the second time that Honda has promised things it won't deliver. The Honda and Aston Martin partnership is perfect; both like to promise and deliver nothing.

[Nikosar]

FIA not looking to grant ADOU to Aston Martin despite Adrian Newey putting pressure.

[TyreSlip]

FIA not looking to grant ADOU to Aston Martin despite Adrian Newey putting pressure.

You mean early before Miami?

[Seanspeed]

FIA not looking to grant ADOU to Aston Martin despite Adrian Newey putting pressure.

Source?

The engine is either down on power enough or it's not.

[Seanspeed]

Jak Crawford will drive FP1 in place of Alonso. Sounds like they are not expecting much out of the weekend.

Well yea, they still cant complete a GP distance. And need to try and save what parts they can for these drivers so they dont blow through the budget cap early on and lose their ability to improve later on.

[diffuser]

Jak Crawford will drive FP1 in place of Alonso. Sounds like they are not expecting much out of the weekend.

Yeah I agree as this seems very early in the season to give Crawford a go. Alonso might be thinking hard about this season with his baby due shortly. Let’s see how many laps Jak gets to circulate in FP1 as it might not be very many if they haven’t fixed the vibrations.

They have to do it at some time and it's not gonna be at the next 4 races cause 2 have been cancelled at the next 2 after that are sprint weekends. The 5th race after that is Monaco, err no. 6 and 7 are Spain and Austria ...possible. 8 is Silverstone (sprint weekend) and the last 2 before the summer break is SPA, hungry other possibilities.

[Waz]

Will they have to take new PUs in Japan if Honda has done something to solve the vibrations? This can't be a "software patch"?

I think they will adjust the motor and battery mounts, there is a lot of time now, they will solve a lot of things.

Whether it will be enough, we will see...

How much damping can they put into the engine mounts though? We're talking about a stressed member of the chassis. Too much damping will flex like crazy.

[AR3-GP]

They have to do it at some time and it's not gonna be at the next 4 races cause 2 have been cancelled at the next 2 after that are sprint weekends. The 5th race after that is Monaco, err no. 6 and 7 are Spain and Austria ...possible. 8 is Silverstone (sprint weekend) and the last 2 before the summer break is SPA, hungry other possibilities.

If the car was going to be "right" in Japan, Alonso would never let anyone else drive it and Aston Martin would never take him out of that car either.

I could be wrong, but it's a strange decision that does not fill me with confidence. When Lance was asked if the car would be fixed in Japan, he asked for prayers. That was maybe already a clue.