'Patched up and bodged': Adrian Newey reveals systemic issues at Aston Martin

F1 design legend Adrian Newey has admitted he had to essentially take Aston Martin apart and put it back together again in the hope of solving their 2026 problems.

When Newey signed with the Silverstone squad in time to work on their first challenger under the new regulations, neither he nor Lawrence Stroll could have imagined just how tricky the process would be.

With new power unit partners Honda suffering their own issues alongside persistent problems for Newey's overweight chassis, the opening rounds of the 2026 campaign have been a write off for the team.

Aston Martin have accrued a single point in the constructors' standings thanks to Fernando Alonso, who is growing increasingly frustrated as talks of a potential team exit swirl.

It's not all doom and gloom however. Newey revealed in Aston Martin's latest 'Undercut' feature that an upgrade is on the way for the Hungarian Grand Prix in late July and Alonso spoke more positively about the team's future at time's during last weekend's race in Austria.

But to improve their chances, Newey had to dig right down to the surface of the Aston Martin operation, admitting that he found faults with the squad that could be linked all the way back to when the outfit operated as Jordan F1 team.

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Newey traces Aston Martin F1 issues back to Jordan

In conversation with Aston Martin, Newey revealed ahead of the team's home race that he had traced systems and processes issues back to when the Silverstone operation was run by late legend Eddie Jordan.

Pointing to how Jordan's eponymous F1 squad had unintentionally laid unsuitable foundations for what would eventually become Aston Martin, Newey admitted: "We were relying on tools and processes that had been patched and bodged for years - you could trace some of them right back to the very early days of the Jordan team that was based here in Silverstone, long before Aston Martin returned to the grid.

"At some point, a system that's just patch‑on‑patch stops being fit for purpose. That's where we had got to.

"The result was a very frustrating car build. Parts weren't being ordered at the right time - not because people weren't doing their jobs, but because the underlying system was failing them."

Jordan was one of the most beloved and charismatic figures in motorsport and was deeply proud of his team's achievements of winning four grands prix across their 15-year stint in the sport.

Jordan Grand Prix first entered F1 in 1991 and until they were sold to Midland in 2005, established themselves as a competitive constructor among the midfield.

Following his comments about Jordan's processes, Newey was asked to clarify whether he felt Aston Martin's setback was due to a structural problem rather than a people problem.

The 67-year-old replied: "Very much so. We've taken this difficult spell as an opportunity to overhaul how we work.

"We're making big strides in our in‑house facilities and production capabilities. You won't see all the gains immediately, but they'll be visible on the updated car: many more components are now produced in‑house. The gearbox casing is manufactured here, the floor patterns and floors themselves are made here, and a lot of parts that were previously outsourced have come back in-house.

"That gives us better cost control, but more importantly, much greater flexibility and control over our own destiny."

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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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