Adrian Newey breaks silence about Aston Martin F1 misery and reveals updates plan

Adrian Newey has shared an update on his Aston Martin team's upgrade plans, in his first race appearance for months.

The legendary designer hadn't been present at an F1 race since the season opener in Melbourne, but popped up in the Principality – and was rewarded with his team's first point of the season.

Fernando Alonso (of course) took advantage of the chaos sparked by team-mate Lance Stroll's late crash, as well as a post-race penalty for Sergio Perez, to claim an unlikely tenth place in a season beset by troubles for the team.

Of course, starting 21st and 22nd on the grid should serve as a stark reminder that Newey's team is still a long way from challenging for championship points in more normal races, something that Newey himself seems well aware of.

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Newey reveals Aston Martin update plans

The man in charge of spearheading development revealed on Sunday that the team plan to finally bring a major update to their car, 'just before the summer break'.

Of course, keen-eyed observers will note that there are still five races between now and the month-long shutdown, including this weekend's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. In other words, don't hope for too much, too soon.

Newey said: "Unfortunately it's a bit of a long walk from the back this time, from our cars. It's nice to be back, the first race I've been to since Melbourne. Just been working away on updating the car, an update that we will have ready just before the summer break."

"It's a long, hard slog for [the drivers] obviously, because we took the decision after Melbourne that rather than doing piecemeal updates, we'd take our time to put systems in place and do our research much more carefully, everything was such a rush to get the car out for Melbourne.

"We said okay, we'll endure the short-term pain and hopefully make a decent step when we make it."

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