The Miami GP was another difficult event for Aston Martin, who weren’t fast enough to secure points on Sunday.
Aston Martin were arguably slower than Sauber on race day, with the AMR25 struggling across all three circuits – regardless of their different characteristics.
Looking ahead to what remains of 2025, upgrades are planned to rectify the situation.
Not just to improve this year’s results, but also to begin testing some of the technologies planned for 2026.
Aston Martin must have certainty before 2026 regulations
There is a great contradiction between Aston Martin’s on and off-track fortunes.
Over the past eighteen months, the British team’s performances on track have been extremely disappointing.
The factory in Silverstone has failed to introduce any improvements in recent seasons.
Aston’s best qualifying time in Miami was five tenths slower than their best time from 2023.
Needless to say, losing half a second over the course of two years is unsatisfactory – especially considering the investment happening behind the scenes.
Speaking of which, Aston Martin are still a team with the resources to succeed in 2026.
The arrival of senior personnel like Adrian Newey and Enrico Cardile, in combination with the Honda engine, give them every opportunity to capitalise on the new regulations.
Perhaps the final piece of the puzzle for their 2026 preparations concern calibrating and correlating their new wind tunnel and development tools.
Cowell outlines Aston’s upgrade plan
As quoted by es.motorsport.com, team principal Andy Cowell explains how upgrades to the AMR25 will help their 2026 preparations:
“The result reflects the performance of the car, and we aren’t happy with it.
“We are analysing all the information we have of the drivers and the data, trying to understand.
“This is our general evaluation of today.
“It’s a very representative track. Right now we don’t have a concrete area where we are losing. There are many problems to resolve.
“Some have improved, others haven’t.
“But it’s another event that we can take data from to feed our simulation tools.
“There are technologies we’ve thought about for 2026 that we are going to test on the 2025 car.
“It’s the only way to validate things for the future – if it works in the race, then it truly works.
“So we are going to use this car to test and perfect tools for a team, which is still young, that is now starting to use resources that big teams have been capitalising on for decades.”
Hitting two birds with one stone
Aston Martin have managed to collect reasonable points so far this year, despite their poor performance.
Unfortunate retirements for Fernando Alonso in Australia and China, not to mention poor strategy in the Miami Sprint, have cost the team the potential for more points.
Still, they still have the potential to finish 2025 as the ‘best of the rest’ – behind the top four teams.
Because they have to ensure their new development tools correlate as intended, upgrades will arrive to the AMR25 in the near future.
This means that Aston’s trajectory over the coming months will also determine how confident they can be ahead of 2026.
Team principal Andy Cowell, who is no stranger to success from his years at Mercedes, makes no mistake the ambition is to win.
Aston Martin, therefore, have no intention of abandoning this year – instead aiming to use this year as a springboard for 2026.
When a member of the media suggested Aston weren’t doing anything in 2025, Cowell gave a sly response:
“Hopefully we can tighten the screws a bit. You can give a heads up to Fred [Vasseur].”
This cheeky message to Vasseur is an indication, albeit a small one, of the team’s ambitions to climb the field.
As several teams have demonstrated with these regulations, it only takes one upgrade package to make big progress.
