Shocking Adrian Newey details emerge: F1 legend 'blamed' for Aston Martin chaos

Aston Martin F1

Shocking Adrian Newey details emerge: F1 legend 'blamed' for Aston Martin chaos

F1 design genius Adrian Newey is dealing with a struggling Aston Martin squad

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Sunday 22 March 2026 19:58 Updated: 20:23

The blame has been laid at Adrian Newey's door in a recent report in the Japanese media in regards to the nightmare partnership between Honda and Aston Martin.

As the start of the F1 2026 season rolled around earlier this month, it became clear that Aston Martin were far off from where they had hoped to be coming into the sport's new regulations cycle.

For 2026 and beyond, F1's power unit and chassis regulations have been entirely overhauled, with Honda tasked with assisting Aston Martin and Newey as they tackle the change.

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After arriving late to January's Barcelona shakedown and putting in the least amount of laps of any team in the February pre-season tests, the drastic extent of Aston Martin's true struggles have now been revealed in the opening rounds of this year's campaign.

Neither Fernando Alonso nor Lance Stroll have been able to complete a full grand prix in 2026, suffering persistent issues with the Honda power unit.

The vibrations coming from the Honda PU have been reported to now be so bad that Stroll and Alonso fear they are at risk of suffering permanent nerve damage as a result, with the Spanish driver even seen removing his hands from the steering wheel entirely at last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix, clearly suffering.

And as the F1 2026 crisis continues at Aston Martin, their managing technical partner Newey has been named in Japanese media as the man who set Honda off on the wrong course.

Newey arrival 'forced significant Honda changes'

Ahead of Honda's home grand prix in Japan next weekend, Japanese outlet Autosport Web Japan have published a report from Andrew Garrison, described as a 'beloved veteran in the motorsport world', claiming Newey is at fault for Honda's F1 disaster.

Having also scolded Newey and Aston Martin's chief strategy officer Andy Cowell, the latest report from Garrison read: "I understand that things were going smoothly until Newey joined Aston Martin. The power unit architecture had been finalised, agreement had been reached on the layout for the battery and cooling systems, and the integration work was progressing without a hitch.

"However, the new boss arrived at Silverstone and, upon seeing the basic design of the AMR26, decided to scrap everything and start almost from scratch.

"As a result, Honda was forced to make significant changes to the package. In short, that is why it is not performing well at the moment.

"After all, there were only seven months between Honda understanding what Newey wanted from the power unit and actually getting it out on the track on the final day of testing in Barcelona."

When is the next F1 race?

After a fast turnaround between the 2026 season opener and the second round, fans and drivers can breathe easy for a moment given that there is now a week off until the third race weekend of the championship.

The next grand prix is not until Sunday, March 29 in Suzuka as the Japanese Grand Prix returns before a long break in April following confirmation from F1 that both the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs have been cancelled due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

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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