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Aston Martin and Adrian Newey project has 'backfired' claims F1 insider

Kerry Violet Saturday 28 February 2026 09:58

As problems continue to pile on new Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey, an F1 insider has claimed the marriage between the design genius and the British outfit is 'backfiring'.

Though the upcoming 2026 campaign is yet to begin, it became clear during pre-season testing earlier this month that Aston Martin are firmly on the back foot, something that their driver duo of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso did little to hide.

Stroll outed the team as being 'four seconds' slower than their fastest rivals in Bahrain, with Alonso cutting an increasingly frustrated figure in the garage as his testing stints were continuously disrupted by issues with their new Honda power unit.

The F1 team owned by Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll is entering into a works partnership with Honda for the first time in 2026, just as the new chassis and power unit regulations come into play.

But Honda have hardly painted a picture of a PU supplier ready to take on this challenge, releasing a public statement ahead of the final day of testing in Bahrain that admitted they were suffering from a parts shortage and had found a battery-related issue that forced them into limited running on the final day of the test.

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Ralf Schumacher 'pities' Aston Martin over 2026 crisis

As the countdown is firmly on to the first competitive round of the sport's new era, former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher has raised serious concerns that Aston Martin may not even be in a position to complete a full-length grand prix.

The German racer urged Honda to be upfront with the public over their continued struggle, before turning his attention to just how much of a letdown Newey's new project has so far turned out to be.

Speaking on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast with the German arm of Sky Sports, Schumacher said of Honda and Aston Martin: "The question now is: ‘Can this be fixed with the existing concept, or do we need to start from scratch?’ If the latter is the case, then the year will be over before we know it, faster than we can even blink.

The brother of seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher went on to admit that he pitied Aston Martin after so much hope had been built up around Newey's arrival due to the British engineer having masterminded his way to a grand total of 25 F1 championships.

"I don't feel any schadenfreude, but rather pity. The project looked great, and I almost feel sorry that it's now backfiring. Now we need to keep calm, but the mood is anything but good," Schumacher added.

Whether Newey can add to his total of over 200 race wins that his work has contributed to in the sport or not remains to be seen, but as Schumacher alluded to, 2026 might have to be a write off for the former Red Bull star and his new team if Honda's power unit problems cannot be remedied.