Adrian Newey warned Aston Martin of F1 'problems' before season began claims Sky Sports insider

Adrian Newey scowling with a cup of coffee — Photo: © IMAGO

Aston Martin

Adrian Newey warned Aston Martin of 'problems' before season began claims Sky F1 insider

Newey pointed out some of Aston Martin's issues prior to the 2026 campaign

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Friday 19 June 2026 21:57

Sky Sports F1 star Naomi Schiff has come to the conclusion that Aston Martin are the biggest underperformers of the 2026 campaign, claiming Adrian Newey isn't entirely to blame.

The F1 team owned by Lawrence Stroll were delighted to announce one of the biggest signings of the 2024 campaign ahead of the new regulations era, boasting the talent of design legend Newey within their ranks.

Following the British engineer's Red Bull exit, Newey opted to sign with the Silverstone squad and take on what would turn out to be the biggest challenge of his career.

But the extent of that challenge has now been laid bare.

After seven rounds of this year's campaign, Aston Martin have a single point to their name and Newey is working tirelessly to improve their chances of fielding a competitive car for the 2027 campaign.

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Aston Martin's F1 struggle unpacked

It became clear that Aston Martin were going to struggle in 2026 as early as pre-season testing.

Since then, the team have been accused of 'playing the blame game' as their driver duo of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll reported painful vibrations coming from the new Honda power unit at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

On the other hand, Honda reported that the impact of the vibrations had not been fully visible until the power unit had been integrated into the Aston Martin chassis, which had been designed by Newey.

In March, HRC president Koji Watanabe said: "On what we call a real vehicle dyno, the level of vibration was not particularly high. However, once the power unit was integrated into the actual car and run on track, very large vibrations emerged."

After last weekend's Barcelona GP where neither Alonso nor Stroll were able to finish the race, Honda released another statement expressing that Aston Martin's F1 results on track 'haven't matched' their ambition.

The Japanese PU provider later added that they were focused on continuing to push the project in a positive direction.

Schiff: Aston Martin issues 'precede' Adrian Newey

In an episode of the Up to Speed podcast posted after the race in Spain, Sky Sports F1 pundit and former driver Schiff gave her thoughts on Aston Martin's underwhelming campaign.

Schiff asked: "Who is the biggest underperformer this season?" Before responding to her own question with: "And you cannot, besides them parking their car during every race basically, we can't park them, right? They've unfortunately come out this season, which should have been such an exciting season for them. I mean, they've thrown so much money at this.

"They brought the star signing Adrian Newey on board. You've got Fernando Alonso in the last phase of his career, hoping to come back swinging, and unfortunately... we saw moments where it looked like it was getting better, and then Barcelona was just as dismal as it was at the beginning.

"I mean, they were seconds behind in terms of pace, double DNF for the team again, and of course, Adrian Newey is a part of the organisation, and therefore you can't completely remove any blame at all from him, but I do think that a lot of the issues that they are enduring right now precedes Adrian Newey.

"We heard him last year saying that there was some problems with the correlation with the wind tunnel, and all these small little things that will have helped to get them in the situation they're in right now. You can't really just point out one individual, but they are for me definitely the biggest underperformer of the season. They should have been in that top five battle, and they're nowhere near it."

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 Sky Sports F1 Naomi Schiff