F1 News: Adrian Newey has unlocked 'SECONDS' of performance with brand new Aston Martin

Aston Martin

Adrian Newey has unlocked 'SECONDS' of performance with brand new Aston Martin F1 car

Adrian Newey joined Aston Martin in March 2025

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 14 July 2026 21:45

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F1 design legend Adrian Newey has found 'seconds' worth of performance in the AMR26, according to reports in Japanese media.

Aston Martin have had a disastrous start to the 2026 season, picking up just one point from the opening nine grand prix weekends.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso is finding himself in a battle with Cadillac drivers Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas right at the back of the pack, rather than scoring regular points like last season, as Aston Martin battle reliability and performance issues.

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While most of the blame is being put on their power unit manufacturer Honda, an F1 insider recently revealed that Newey's chassis design also has its limitations.

Newey has won 26 world championships across his career with different teams, but joined Aston Martin in 2025 as managing technical partner, and later became team principal too. The 67-year-old is desperately working to try and bring upgrades to Aston Martin's car to help propel them in the constructors' championship.

Now, writing for Autosport Web Japan, Andrew Garrison - who is reportedly an undercover former technical director of a team and is described as a 'beloved veteran in the motorsport world' - has revealed the extent of Newey's heavily upgraded 'AMR26B', which will likely make its debut at the Hungarian Grand Prix later this month.

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How much better will Aston Martin be with Newey's upgrades?

Garrison has said that he has heard whispers that Newey's new chassis will shave 'seconds' off the Silverstone-based outfit's lap times.

"Having identified the mistakes in the AMR26 design, Newey is reportedly creating a new machine that shares almost nothing with the original chassis in terms of aerodynamics, mechanics, and even weight," Garrison said.

"According to reliable sources, this improvement is expected to amount to seconds, not tenths of a second. We certainly want to believe that prediction.

"Of course, Honda is also fully committed to improving performance and reliability. And like Newey, Honda is not a company that will repeat the same mistakes twice. That's why I expect significant progress in terms of power units as well."

The team are desperate to show two-time world champion Alonso that they can develop their car at a fast rate, with the 44-year-old Spaniard still not sure whether or not he'll sign a new contract to keep him at the team beyond the end of this season.

F1 Aston Martin Adrian Newey