F1 2026: Aston Martin face ‘six-month wait’ to fix major issue

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Aston Martin face ‘six-month wait’ to fix major issue

Aston Martin could be in for a shocking 2026 campaign

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 17 February 2026 08:27

Aston Martin F1 team have been warned they may have to face a lengthy wait should they wish to resolve a major issue ahead of the 2026 championship.

The Silverstone-based squad enter the upcoming campaign with Adrian Newey among their ranks, with team owner Lawrence Stroll having acquired the F1 design guru's coveted signature following the announcement of his Red Bull departure.

But despite Newey starting work on Aston Martin's 2026 challenger back in May last year, the team have suffered a disastrous start to their first season as a works team with the help of Honda.

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Newey's first Aston Martin F1 car barely made it to the Barcelona shakedown last month, with Lance Stroll only managing five laps around the track before Fernando Alonso took over driving duties for 60 laps on the final day of testing.

As a result, the team headed into the official pre-season tests in Bahrain on the back foot, and things went from bad to worse as Stroll only completed 36 laps on day one before missing much of the day's running due to a power unit issue.

The Canadian racer then dropped the damning claim that Newey's first Aston Martin car is four and a half seconds off the top team.

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Aston Martin gearbox issue could hamper first half of 2026 season

Aston Martin now head into the final week of testing in Bahrain hoping to iron out any issues with their new power unit, although experts have warned the solutions may be far from simple and certainly not a quick fix.

With the chassis and power unit regulations overhaul that comes with the 2026 season, there are many demands required from drivers to adjust how they handle their new machinery, something that could set back a number of teams, particularly Aston Martin, if they are already struggling with their Honda engine and tricky gearbox as has been reported.

Where the gearbox is concerned, Sky Sports stated it ‘cannot withstand the new demands of the short gears now required to reduce speed when cornering'. The engine must always be revving higher to recover electrical energy, something which is new for this season given the near 50/50 split between the ICE and MGU-K, but Sky also pointed out that Aston Martin's first in-house gearbox 'would be too fragile to handle this massive demand for negative torque'.

According to expert opinions shared by MARCA 'rebuilding the gearbox could take around six months', something that signifies Newey's F1 team may have to sacrifice their entire first half of the season to fix their reported gearbox issue sooner rather than later.

Even if Aston Martin started work on their gearbox change now, it would take until July to fix. This perhaps is something Alonso is privy to given he said at the team's 2026 launch that Aston Martin may have ‘a really competitive car in the second half of the year', with potential to compete for race wins.

When does the 2026 F1 season start?

After the first round of pre-season tests in Bahrain took place between February 11 and 13, the second round continues this week from February 18 until February 20.

Aston Martin will then be back in action when the 2026 season starts in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix. The first race of the year takes place on March 8 at 3pm local time (AEDT), 4am GMT, and 11pm ET.

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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F1 Aston Martin Adrian Newey 2026 regulations Honda