F1 2025: Aston Martin win big by signing Ferrari legend

Stroll and Leclerc battling at Shanghai — Photo: © IMAGO

Formula 1

Aston Martin win big by signing Ferrari F1 legend

The team in green continue to gear up for a massive 2026 title bid.

Originally written by Sheona Mountford. This version is a translation.

Wednesday 5 November 2025 15:00

Aston Martin continue to gear up for a massive tilt at F1 relevance in 2026 when the new regulations kick in.

The British team, with Lawrence Stroll flexing his financial muscles, had already welcomed Adrian Newey as their managing technical partner in March, and Ferrari man Enrico Cardile has served as their chief technical officer since the summer.

Now the team has secured yet another key signing with the appointment of Ferrari’s Marco Fainello.

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The now 61-year-old was crucial during Ferrari’s title winning years during the Michael Schumacher era, as the engineer who helped build their simulator.

Fainello will take on the role of Aston Martin’s consultant, and with his F1 CV it is easy to see why the team were keen to make the signing.

Pieces fall into place at Aston Martin

Following his arrival at Aston Martin, Newey labelled the team’s simulator as one of their ‘weak tools’.

"I think Aston has gone from a small team as Jordan, and then the pink team at Force India, and then into Racing Point and so forth, where it's always a small but over-performing team," Newey said in May.

"It's grown hugely in a very short space of time into what it is now. And we now really need to settle down and kind of get the organisational structure perhaps a little bit better sorted out, work out how we all work together as effectively as possible and develop the simulation tools, because that's one of the areas which I would say we're quite weak in."

Fainello’s signing for 2026, indicates that Aston Martin are taking improvement on their simulator seriously to build towards their ambition of becoming a title challenging team.

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