Aston Martin currently sit 7th in the F1 standings, a notable decline from their final result in last year’s Championship.<\/p>\n
For the second year in a row, Aston’s development has regressed relative to other teams, pushing the team further down the pecking order.<\/p>\n
To some extent, Andy Cowell’s personnel are working to improve the AMR25 and climb the field.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Aston Martin make no mistake that Adrian Newey<\/a> – along with the bulk of their resources – are focused on 2026.<\/p>\n When Newey’s move to Aston Martin was announced, there was speculation about to what degree he could impact this year’s car.<\/p>\n After all, having played an integral role in establishing Red Bull’s dominant concept<\/a> in 2022, it was argued that Newey might be able to rectify Aston’s fortunes later in 2025.<\/p>\n Team principal Andy Cowell has been quick to emphasise that Aston’s star engineer is not working on the AMR25.<\/p>\n Understandably, the team are willing to accept a disappointing campaign over the next eight months to put themselves in a strong position for 2026.<\/p>\n In this sense, Aston Martin can also secure a head-start on the top teams.<\/p>\n Unlike Red Bull or McLaren, they don’t have the challenge of being in a development race for the title.<\/p>\n Speaking in an interview with AS<\/a>, Cowell has discussed Newey’s work since beginning work at the factory in March:<\/p>\n “He is a designer of race cars, one of the best. <\/em>Since day one, we made sure to prepare his work space.<\/em><\/p>\n “He entered and attended meetings on the new regulations, about the concepts we were working on.<\/em><\/p>\n “We explained the story from the first test to the first race [of 2025].<\/em><\/p>\n “We set all of the deadlines to send information for the development of this car.<\/em><\/p>\n “He went straight to work with the engineers to do sketches in his drawing board.”<\/em><\/p>\n Newey’s arrival in March – whilst giving him enough time to work on 2026 – forces Aston Martin<\/a> to be judicious with their resource allocation.<\/p>\n 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:<\/p>\n “He’s in that cycle of designing to design the fundamental aspects of the car,”\u00a0<\/em>Cowell continued,<\/p>\n “About 90% of the creation of a car is the factory, and that is where we want Adrian.<\/em><\/p>\n “He has his office, everyone who passes by says he’s always drawing on his board.<\/em><\/p>\n “Of course, he doesn’t go to reunions, he doesn’t respond to emails – he is simply preparing a fast car.<\/em><\/p>\n “And all of us support that process.”<\/em><\/p>\n It would be a stretch to say that Aston Martin<\/a> can simply discard this season.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\nAdrian Newey focusing on the 2026 regulations<\/h2>\n
Aston Martin forced to be pragmatic<\/h4>\n
2025 to be a year of damage limitation<\/h4>\n