Trouble at Aston Martin? Adrian Newey 'rethinking' 2026 project

Adrian Newey, Windtunnel, socials — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

Trouble at Aston Martin? Adrian Newey 'rethinking' 2026 project

Newey's attention is firmly on ensuring the team are ready to compete in 2026 and beyond

Chris Deeley

Wednesday 14 January 2026 18:55

Even when you're the most singular race car designer of the 21st century, things don't always go your way.

A report from Italian paper Gazzetta dello Sport claims that Aston Martin's 2026 car, their first designed by Adrian Newey, was set a little way behind schedule by some gremlins, with a 'conceptual rethink' required.

The story goes that the design team realised that their wind tunnel and computer calculations weren't providing fully reliable data and results – with a recalibration of the tunnel and a software rewrite taking place over the summer.

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Apparently that didn't actually delay the team's timeline too much. What did cause some consternation inside Aston was that the now-reliable wind tunnel testing and simulation work showed some issues with the design of their 2026 machine.

Aston set for late launch in 2026

Fixing up those issues has put the project behind schedule somewhat, although it's worth noting that the noise out of the team has been that they're expecting to truly challenge in 2027, rather than right out of the blocks in 2026.

The team will not formally unveil the AMR26 until February 9th, ten days after the end of private pre-season testing in Barcelona and currently the latest that any team is scheduled to show off their 2026 machinery.

Driver Lance Stroll spoke about the coming season after the final race of last year, admitting: "It’s a big question mark for everybody. No one knows at this time of the year how everyone’s going to look in Melbourne.

"For sure, we don’t have all the tools to be a top team, so there’s no hiding behind that, but time will tell how good we look."

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