{"id":36827,"date":"2025-08-16T04:55:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T08:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=36827"},"modified":"2025-08-16T04:55:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T08:55:04","slug":"why-aston-martin-are-dark-horses-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/16\/why-aston-martin-are-dark-horses-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Aston Martin are dark horses for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite a disappointing few years, Aston Martin are everyone&#8217;s radar heading into the 2026 regulations. With new infrastructure, and a heavily expanded technical team, the British team are highly ambitious.<\/p>\n<p>Their partnership with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/10\/f1-honda-working-on-extremely-ambitious-2026-engine-targets\/\" target=\"_self\">Honda<\/a> could also be a difference-maker, as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/10\/toto-wolff-i-expect-a-lot-from-ferrari-and-aston-martin-in-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has warned<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Aston Martin&#8217;s progress ahead of 2026 will be eagerly anticipated, with Adrian Newey leading the integration of their new wind tunnel and simulator.<\/p>\n<p>Though there can be no clear favourites for 2026 at this stage, Aston are increasingly seen as a team to watch.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_36802\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36802\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-36802 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2227075447-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2227075447-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2227075447-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2227075447-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2227075447-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2227075447-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2227075447-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2227075447-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36802\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lance Stroll arrives on the grid in Spa, Belgium. (Photo by Zak Mauger\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Aston Martin provide update on development for next year<\/h2>\n<p>Perhaps more than any other team in Formula 1, Aston Martin have seen significant changes in their leadership.<\/p>\n<p>It was in January that Andy Cowell was appointed as team principal, with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/07\/12\/adrian-newey-anticipates-range-of-aero-solutions-in-2026\/\" target=\"_self\">Adrian Newey<\/a> joining the factory only a few months later.<\/p>\n<p>Cowell, who was instrumental to Mercedes&#8217; engines dominance in 2014, is hugely respected in the paddock.<\/p>\n<p>Since taking the helm, Cowell has introduced a series of changes to the team&#8217;s organisation. His aim, much like it was at Mercedes, is to maximise efficiency between different departments.<\/p>\n<p>With Enrico Cardile, former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/14\/fred-vasseur-identifies-2026-as-key-ferrari-title-opportunity\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari<\/a> Technical Director, among Aston Martin&#8217;s signings, organisation is especially important at Aston.<\/p>\n<p>Signing big names from rivals is certainly a statement of ambition, but it is also essential to ensure they work in unison.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/26\/aston-martin-cowell-praises-alonso-and-stroll-line-up\/\" target=\"_self\">Andy Cowell<\/a> has discussed Aston&#8217;s progress ahead of 2026, including the value of the team&#8217;s new facilities:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Progress has been made, and the concept architecture of the 2026 car is encouraging.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We&#8217;re seeing greater refinement, growth in the organisation and development in our methods of operation. It&#8217;s going well.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The fact we now have a wind tunnel available to us seven days a week, 24 hours of each of those days if we so choose, is an advantage.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Having our own facility speeds up development and provides more responsive answers to engineers&#8217; queries.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The new wind tunnel is game-changing,&#8221;<\/em> explained Aston Martin&#8217;s team principal.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;It&#8217;s driving greater efficiency and ultimately, in the bigger scheme of things, that helps us find answers to the how and the why.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_36804\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36804\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-36804 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2228167617-1024x689.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2228167617-1024x689.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2228167617-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2228167617-768x517.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2228167617-1536x1034.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/2228167617-2048x1379.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36804\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fernando Alonso in Budapest, Hungary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>Promising signs for Aston<\/h4>\n<p>The big challenge for teams in the first half of 2025 was how to balance their short and medium-term demands.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, allocating wind tunnel hours between this year&#8217;s car and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/07\/02\/aston-martin-seeing-encouraging-progress-with-2026-car\/\" target=\"_self\">the 2026 package<\/a> was a key decision.<\/p>\n<p>Aston Martin, like all teams, understands the importance of working on next year&#8217;s regulations.<\/p>\n<p>However, Aston are in a unique position compared to their rivals. Their new wind tunnel and simulator only came online at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n<p>This meant it was a priority for the team to calibrate its new tools with the AMR25.<\/p>\n<p>By using their new wind tunnel for this year&#8217;s updates, Aston Martin have been able to ensure their correlation tools are accurate.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/02\/alonso-aston-martin-progress-encouraging-for-next-years-project\/\" target=\"_self\">The effectiveness of their updates<\/a>, most recently in Hungary, is an encouraging sign ahead of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>As Lawrence Stroll&#8217;s personnel continue to work hard at the factory, the building-blocks for success are falling into place.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo: Zak Mauger\/LAT Images (via Aston Martin media gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite a disappointing few years, Aston Martin are everyone&#8217;s radar heading into the 2026 regulations. With new infrastructure, and a heavily expanded technical team, the British team are highly ambitious. Their partnership with Honda could also be a difference-maker, as Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has warned. Aston Martin&#8217;s progress ahead of 2026 will be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":36803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[1566,2452,71,224],"class_list":["post-36827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-aston-martin","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-lance-stroll"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36828,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36827\/revisions\/36828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}