Aston Martin currently sit 7th in the F1 standings, a notable decline from their final result in last year’s Championship.
For the second year in a row, Aston’s development has regressed relative to other teams, pushing the team further down the pecking order.
To some extent, Andy Cowell’s personnel are working to improve the AMR25 and climb the field.
At the same time, Aston Martin make no mistake that Adrian Newey – along with the bulk of their resources – are focused on 2026.
Adrian Newey focusing on the 2026 regulations
When Newey’s move to Aston Martin was announced, there was speculation about to what degree he could impact this year’s car.
After all, having played an integral role in establishing Red Bull’s dominant concept in 2022, it was argued that Newey might be able to rectify Aston’s fortunes later in 2025.
Team principal Andy Cowell has been quick to emphasise that Aston’s star engineer is not working on the AMR25.
Understandably, the team are willing to accept a disappointing campaign over the next eight months to put themselves in a strong position for 2026.
In this sense, Aston Martin can also secure a head-start on the top teams.
Unlike Red Bull or McLaren, they don’t have the challenge of being in a development race for the title.
Speaking in an interview with AS, Cowell has discussed Newey’s work since beginning work at the factory in March:
“He is a designer of race cars, one of the best. Since day one, we made sure to prepare his work space.
“He entered and attended meetings on the new regulations, about the concepts we were working on.
“We explained the story from the first test to the first race [of 2025].
“We set all of the deadlines to send information for the development of this car.
“He went straight to work with the engineers to do sketches in his drawing board.”
Aston Martin forced to be pragmatic
Newey’s arrival in March – whilst giving him enough time to work on 2026 – forces Aston Martin to be judicious with their resource allocation.
They cannot afford to hit two birds with one stone, which is why 2026 is taking the bulk of their wind tunnel and CFD time:
“He’s in that cycle of designing to design the fundamental aspects of the car,” Cowell continued,
“About 90% of the creation of a car is the factory, and that is where we want Adrian.
“He has his office, everyone who passes by says he’s always drawing on his board.
“Of course, he doesn’t go to reunions, he doesn’t respond to emails – he is simply preparing a fast car.
“And all of us support that process.”
2025 to be a year of damage limitation
It would be a stretch to say that Aston Martin can simply discard this season.
They still have to calibrate their new wind tunnel and development facilities – which requires bringing updates and ensuring accurate correlation between the track and factory.
With that said, the Silverstone outfit are unlikely to bother the front-runners in any meaningful way this season.
Their inability to recover from their 2023 mid-season slump has resigned them to the midfield – at least until 2026.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll would have both expected slightly more of the AMR25, but they are equally aware that Aston’s transformation is calibrated towards 2026.
