Fixing Aston Martin: F1 insider's theory on what went wrong and how Newey will put it right

F1 Technical

Fixing Aston Martin: F1 insider's theory on what went wrong and how Newey will put it right

Aiming high and falling short

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Tuesday 7 July 2026 20:58

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We all know the fundamentals of what's wrong with Aston Martin. Car, engine, everything is bad. But one F1 insider has a fascinating take on why it's all a mess.

Many had half an eye on Adrian Newey's first Aston Martin car being in with a shout of winning races in 2026 but it has all gone horribly wrong this season.

A poor chassis and an unreliable as well as under powered Honda engine has created a perfect storm at the team and left them in their worst position for years.

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They have just one point after nine races following a fortunate 10th place at the Monaco Grand Prix, with only a pointless Cadillac below them in the constructors' standings.

But now, the team are effectively the slowest team on the entire grid having made the decision to postpone bringing upgrades to the car until the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July before the summer break, where the team will hope to add a raft of updates to gain more performance.

An engine upgrade is also likely to follow after the summer break at Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix.

Aston Martin aiming too high

Former F1 race engineer Mark Slade has now given a theory on the root of Aston Martin's technical faults, pointing to how the car is setup with a rear ride height.

He said on Peter Windsor's podcast: “Very early on, it was clear that that car was running a lot of rake, so along the length of the car.

“See the the extra amount of daylight under the rear of the Aston (below compared with a Ferrari), and if you recall the pre-ground effect cars that we were running up until the end of 2021 that had become the norm to run the rear at a very high ride height, because it gets more performance from the floor. It just makes the car more efficient.

The rear ride height of the Aston Martin (top) is much higher than the Ferrari

“My feeling is that Adrian read the rules and decided that he wanted to go down that route again, because it was actually the Red Bull that first really started that trend back in the sort of mid to late 2010s, and I think you just decide, 'ok, these cars are more like those cars, that's the approach you want to take. I'm determined to run the car with a high rear ride height.'"

Aston Martin pain from FIA rules

Slade, who worked with Mercedes and McLaren during his F1 career, pointed out the downsides of such a design concept in the latest rules and regulations by pointing to an FIA focus on trying to make cars less affected by the backwash of air from following close behind a rival.

He added: “But the downside is that the FIA realised that the biggest problem with one car following another is the out wash from the front wing, which in the pre 2022 cars, a lot of the aero was around getting that dirty air pushed out as far as possible before it got to the rear of the car, because if that dirty air gets drawn into the floor ahead of the rear wheels, it massively influences the performance of the floor.

“As you raise the rear right high relative to the front, that becomes more and more of an issue. So those cars were designed to minimise that effect, but the rules for this year have been designed to try to prevent the teams from controlling the outwash, and so that means it is highly likely to be coming back in under the floor, ahead of the rear wheels."

It's been a season of frustration for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Aston Martin struggling for answers

In an added effect, Slade also spoke about how the problems that Newey has identified within the regulations have proven challenging for his staff in finding solutions.

"I think Adrian's view going in was likely, 'well, I know this is going to be a problem, but I expect my aero designers to come up with solutions to fix that problem," Slade continued. "

Because we need to run the rear height to get the most out of the car,' and unfortunately, I think what's happened is that they just haven't been able to do a good enough job to deal with that,

"So the car designed around running a higher rear ride height, it just isn't working, because the floor isn't working, probably because of the ingestion of dirty air from the outside.

Aston Martin rivals doing it differently

Furthermore Slade also mentioned how Aston Martin's working methods are almost completely different from most other teams on the grid in looking to find the optimal high rear ride height solution first rather than build up from a low rear ride height setting.

Slade said: "I mean, all the other teams, most of them are around pushing that dirty air outboard, and I think we'll see a gradual increase of rear ride heights with all the other cars, but they took the other approach.

"They started at a low rear ride height, and their evolution is to gradually work towards higher and higher rear ride heights as they learn how to control the outwash.

"So you know Adrian's kind of come at it from the opposite direction, which isn't unusual for him. He's the sort of guy he will come in and say I've looked at the rules and I think the ultimate fastest car will have this concept, so that's how we're going to start, and all the problems with that, I think you guys in the design office can just work harder to fix."

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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F1 Aston Martin Adrian Newey