The Monaco GP saw Adrian Newey make his first appearance as a member of Aston Martin, accompanied by his now iconic red notebook.
In many ways, Newey oversaw a weekend that exemplified Aston’s position in the pecking order.
One the one hand, a strong qualifying from Alonso (enough for P6 on the grid) demonstrated some of the team’s progress in optimising their development tools.
At the same time, a questionable strategy and eventual engine failure undid the Spaniard’s hard work.
Last weekend’s result was a reminder of the two areas Aston Martin must improve. The first is pure performance, whilst the second is operational efficiency.
Newey will look to influence both fronts and set the standard at the Silverstone factory – though ultimately his main prerogative is the 2026 car.
Newey explains 2026 focus, scheduled upgrades for AMR25
Adrian Newey officially started work at Aston Martin in March, meaning he has spent a few months with the team.
Ideally, team owner Lawrence Stroll might have liked to get Newey working at the factory slightly sooner.
Not only to have some impact on the 2025 car, but also to accelerate his integration in the team ahead of the 2026 regulations.
Still, the 66-year-old has worked to get up to speed quickly and make up for lost time.
With teams only permitted to start testing their 2026 cars in the wind tunnel from January 1st, Newey and Aston Martin can compensate for this two month lag time.
Across the field, there will be different resource allocations between this year and the next.
Aston Martin, identifying the importance of the new regulations, are putting more emphasis on next year’s cars.
This is where Adrian Newey has been focusing his efforts, though there are still a few more updates due for this season.
Newey outlined how the team are prioritising their time:
“I’m quite disciplined like that I suppose,” he explained in Monte Carlo.
“I tend to be, as I said earlier, a bit tunnel vision. So I’ve been really concentrating on the 2026 car.
“But yes, doing lunchtime chats, there’s a small core team that’s working on the 2025 car and will do for a few months yet.
“We’ll have an upgrade somewhere around Silverstone time.
“So I’ve just been having lunchtime chats with that core team.
“Kind of [talking about] what you’re up to, discussing ideas, putting a few ideas in and we’ll see where we get to.”
Accelerating a complex process
Aston Martin’s new wind tunnel, simulator, Honda engine deal and – of course – Adrian Newey’s arrival give the Silverstone squad a lot of major elements to put together before 2026.
It is unlikely that all of Aston’s investments will pay off immediately.
What is possible, however, is for the team to make enough progress in correlating and optimising their tools to put them in a good position for the upcoming regulations.
Few people are better positioned that Newey to oversee a team’s transition from the midfield to the front.
In this context, Aston Martin still have the ingredients to make a real charge in 2026.
The success of their Imola upgrades, developed in the Mercedes wind tunnel and than validated in Aston’s new wind tunnel, should also provide some confidence in their work for next season.
Main photo: Zak Mauger/LAT Images (via Aston Martin media gallery)
