Aston Martin can be pleased with the first indications from their Imola update package, which also seems to be generating more performance in Monaco.
The Silverstone-based outfit’s progress away from the track – a Honda deal, newly constructed wind tunnel and acquisition of Adrian Newey – has generally been clouded by their poor results in 2025 so far.
This weekend in Monaco, however, is a chance for Aston Martin to change the narrative of their season.
Still, regardless of their progress in the coming months, Adrian Newey and his technical team are already focused on 2026.
Since he began work in March, Adrian Newey has identified several areas for improvement.
Adrian Newey integrates himself at Aston Martin
Newey’s contract with Aston Martin dominated headlines last year, with the move representing one of the most significant in F1.
At the same time, a relatively lengthy gardening leave prevented the 66-year-old from beginning work at the team until early March.
Because of this, the last few months have been very intense at the factory.
Not only is Newey developing the team’s concept for the 2026 regulations, but he is also directing Aston Martin in their optimisation of their new development facilities.
These include a new wind tunnel and simulator, which only came online earlier this year.
The team’s Imola package, though conceived in the Mercedes wind tunnel, was also tested in the team’s new tunnel – to help ensure accurate calibration.
After a difficult few years, the British team are finally making some progress, which should start to bear fruit.
Despite this, Adrian Newey continues to push for Aston Martin to further optimise their equipment.
Newey’s verdict on the team’s development tools
Since Lawrence Stroll’s takeover (and especially after Fernando Alonso’s dream start in 2023) there has been significant pressure on Aston Martin.
Their failure to consolidate themselves at the front has become a major source of frustration.
With the 2026 regulations representing their best chance at climbing the field, Adrian Newey wants to manage expectations and speak candidly about the task ahead.
Speaking in Monaco, Newey identified some of the team’s current shortcomings:
“It’s fair to say that some of our tools are weak,” the BBC quotes him as saying.
“Particularly the driver-in-the-loop simulator needs a lot of work because it’s not correlating at all at the moment, which is a fundamental research tool.
Newey added that Aston will “sort out a plan to get it where it needs to be. But that’s probably a two-year project in truth.”
Inevitably, there is always something that an F1 team can improve and more efficiently harness.
Specifically in the case of Aston Martin, however, the challenge of capitalising on their new technology is sizable:
“There’s a lot of individually very, very good people. We just need to try to get them working together, perhaps in a slightly better organised way.
“That’s simply a result of the roots of the team at Jordan that became Force India, that became Racing Point.
“And was as such always a small but slightly over-performing team, to now in a very short space of time, a very big team – that the truth is has been underperforming this year.”
Main photo: Zak Mauger/LAT Images (via Aston Martin media gallery)
