F1 2026 Preview

Aston Martin F1 2026 Preview: Only Adrian Newey and Fernando Alonso can stop the shambles

Dan Ripley Tuesday 3 March 2026 12:55

Photo: © IMAGO

Despite poor results, Aston Martin have had one of the most relaxed two years on the Formula 1 grid.

Since an outstanding start to the 2023 season where they looked like being the only opposition to the ultra–dominant Max Verstappen and Red Bull juggernaut, they have dwindled into almost irrelevance.

Yet, they have not been judged too much for it. This is because of the 2024 announcement that design genius Adrian Newey would be joining the team for 2025 in what was seen as a massive coup given the interest of Ferrari and a dream partnership with Lewis Hamilton.

As soon as that was confirmed, nothing else mattered. Who cares how 2024 or 2025 goes if Newey will be in place to design the new car for a rules reset in 2026?

With double world champion Fernando Alonso driving the car too, everything was in place. The issue is if you are going to spend two seasons treading water, you better have a speed demon of a car when it comes to the crunch of the season everyone has been waiting for.

Who are Aston Martin’s drivers?

Fernando Alonso will once again be leading the team, partnering Lance Stroll for the fourth straight season. There isn’t a more experienced driver than the Spaniard, who has a record 425 grands prix to his name and two world championship titles to boot.

The problem is they were back in 2005 and 2006. We now have drivers on the grid who were not born when Alonso won those championships. However, it's more awful luck that has made him winless in any race since 2013 and even at 44 years old he is still ridiculously quick.

Stroll is the second youngest podium sitter in F1 behind Max Verstappen but none of his top-three finishes have come at Aston Martin since the team was renamed from Racing Point in 2021.

He has finished behind Alonso in all three of their seasons together, and while some argue that having Alonso as a yardstick is a tough hand to be dealt, others suggest that Alonso is long past his best given his age. Lance is the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll so for now is unlikely to be going anywhere soon.

Lance Stroll will continue in 2026 as Fernando Alonso's team-mate

Where did Aston Martin finish in 2025?

After being one of just two drivers not to score any points in the first eight races, Alonso improved as the season went on to pick up regular minor points and end the season rounding out the top 10.

Stroll meanwhile was above Alonso for much of the campaign but one point in the final 10 grands prix confined him to 16th. Aston Martin ended the season pipped to 6th by Racing Bulls, ensuring a joint lowest 7th place finish along with 2021 and 2022.

Who is Aston Martin’s team principal?

Adrian Newey is Aston Martin’s team principal having taken up the role in November for the final two races of the 2025 season after replacing Andy Cowell.

For those of you wondering, this is the same Newey whose whole career at the likes of Red Bull, McLaren and Williams has been built on being given the whole technical department to work his magic as a car design genius. How making him team principal helps Aston Martin get the best out of him only they can really know. Otherwise it’s a head scratcher to most of us in the F1 world.

Newey isn’t the only new thing for 2026

Out go the Mercedes engines and in come Honda, the same Honda who helped Max Verstappen win his maiden world championship in 2021 with Red Bull, and played an important role in the three after too.

When Honda get it right, they are sublime. When they get it wrong it can be catastrophic, as Alonso will know from his utterly miserable relationship with them at McLaren between 2015 and 2017.

How is the Newey era going?

It's going terrible. Aston Martin had 2026 targets of race wins and perhaps a championship challenge. Right now they are staring down the barrel of being the worst team on the entire grid (and that includes brand new team Cadillac!). Never mind winning races, they will have to finish one first - and I'm not even joking. Reports suggest that at the Australian Grand Prix, they will park the car early in the race!

What’s gone wrong? EVERYTHING! Newey has already admitted his late arrival last March from Red Bull meant the team were already four months behind and it forced a rushed schedule where inevitably corners would have to be cut. The team turned up incredibly late for the January shakedown session in Barcelona and it didn’t get much better in both of the Bahrain tests recently.

Not only that but the new Honda engine looks like being one of the worst on the grid. The car is slow and unreliable to the point this really is basically a repeat of Alonso’s aforementioned McLaren nightmare.

Newey’s aggressive car design is reportedly also causing issues with the Honda engine and the whole thing is a mess. When the Aston Martin can do at least one full lap it is 4.5 seconds slower than the lead cars, but usually it is a broken mess in the garage.

So serious was the engine fault on Alonso’s car on the penultimate day of testing, Stroll was restricted to just six installation laps on the final day at the Sakhir circuit (For reference Arvid Lindblad in the Racing Bulls did 165). There is an incredible piece of video footage you can watch here of the Aston Martin crew, including Newey, that really shows the strain of just how badly this pre-season has gone.

The biggest reason to hope

If anyone is going to save them it’s the experience of Adrian Newey to quickly find the car’s faults, and Alonso in ensuring the potential is gained from the car. Even if it has been a disaster so far there is massive learning potential for the team to get up to speed.

Honda can add improvements to their package during the season and Newey’s design team should find big gains. Even now it might not be enough to get them fighting for wins, but remember that McLaren endured an awful start to 2023 before ending the year bagging podiums. There is room for Aston Martin to turn this around in a small space of time.

Adrian Newey has a huge task to turn around Aston Martin's fortunes

The biggest reason to worry

One disadvantage Aston Martin have compared to their rivals is that they are the only team running Honda engines. Red Bull’s Ford programme for instance has double the data in that Ford also supply Racing Bulls, while Ferrari and Mercedes have engines with other customer teams on the grid. Honda are handicapped in resources to try and identify their issues and catch up with the other teams. In these early days, it seems like getting rid of Mercedes power has been a very bad call.

Aston Martin prediction

At the very least it’s going to be an awful first half of the season as Aston Martin figure out how to last a full grand prix distance without breaking down, let alone be quick enough to start scoring points. It’s difficult to predict beyond that how their fortunes will go. One thing looks certain though, any chances of a third Alonso world championship look about as likely as F1 confirming a move to lemon-powered cars - which at least might be better than Honda power units.

Latest F1 odds for 2026

Fernando Alonso to win the drivers’ championship: 40/1 Lance Stroll to win the drivers’ championship: 250/1 Aston Martin to win the constructors’ championship: 50/1

Aston Martin fun fact

Aston Martin's DNA comes from the famous Jordan team who entered the sport in 1991 under the highly popular owner Eddie Jordan and went on to win races with Damon Hill, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Giancarlo Fisichella.

After Jordan sold his team, they drifted to become Midland in 2006, Spyker in 2007 and then Force India in 2008. After 10 years the team ran by controversial figure Vijay Mallaya collapsed, with the phoenix from the ashes being Racing Point, before billionaire Lawrence Stroll bought the team and turned it into Aston Martin in 2021.