{"id":38851,"date":"2026-02-03T07:53:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=38851"},"modified":"2026-02-03T07:56:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:56:33","slug":"newey-amr26-will-look-very-different-to-car-seen-in-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2026\/02\/03\/newey-amr26-will-look-very-different-to-car-seen-in-barcelona\/","title":{"rendered":"Newey: AMR26 will “be very different” to car seen in Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aston Martin<\/a> needed only a few laps in Barcelona to become the talk of the paddock. The AMR26 immediately distinguished itself with its competitors, featuring a series of bold and unique solutions.<\/p>\n

This was hardly a surprise. With Adrian Newey in charge of development, Aston’s 2026 challenger was always going to generate buzz. Still, the British team managed to shock the grid in various aspects.<\/p>\n

Front and rear suspension choice, a compact engine cover, aggressive sidepod undercuts and unorthodox front wing design were all noteworthy characteristics of the AMR26.<\/p>\n

However, this is only the first iteration of Newey’s 2026 machine. The 67-year-old has confirmed what was reently reported on LWOS<\/a> – Aston Martin are bringing far more aggressive components to the first round in Australia.<\/p>\n

Adrian Newey confirms ambitious AMR26 development<\/h2>\n

For most teams, the Barcelona shakedown was a chance to get a feel for their 2026 cars. Only Williams, who missed out on last week’s running due to delays, were absent from the track.<\/p>\n

Mercedes, Ferrari, Alpine<\/a> and Haas<\/a> in particular completed significant mileage. In the case of Mercedes, they was enough satisfaction with their first two days on track to begin conducting more advanced set-up work on the final day.<\/p>\n

At Aston Martin, however, delays meant the AMR26 only completed one full day of running.<\/p>\n

Because of this, the Silverstone-based outfit focused on a condensed programme. Their priority was to confirm the accuracy of data correlation between the circuit and the factory.<\/p>\n

Given that Aston Martin’s new wind tunnel only came online last year, doing these basic checks was critical. In addition, Adrian Newey was present at the circuit to ensure some of his ambitious ideas – from a mechanical and aerodynamic perspective – were functioning as intended.<\/p>\n

Of course, the team would have preferred to conduct three full days of running. Every lap counts, especially for a team who are integrating a Honda engine<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n

Still, as Newey explains, the AMR26 has been designed with long-term development in mind. The team’s primary objective was to implement certain key components to create a foundation.<\/p>\n

With another set of tests in Bahrain scheduled before the season opener in Australia, Newey says that Aston Martin have more extreme solutions in the pipeline:<\/p>\n

“We’ve attempted to build something that we hope will have quite a lot of development potential.<\/em><\/p>\n

“What you want to try to avoid is a car that comes out quite optimised within its window – but lacks a lot of development potential. <\/em>(cont. on next page)<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fernando Alonso talks with Adrian Newey. (Photo by Zak Mauger\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

“We’ve tried to do the opposite, which is why we’ve really focused on the fundamentals, put our effort into those. Knowing that some of the appendages\u00a0 – wings, bodywork, things that can be changed in season – will hopefully have development potential…<\/em><\/p>\n

“The AMR26 that races in Melbourne is going to be very different to the one people saw at the Barcelona Shakedown, and the AMR26 that we finish the season with in Abu Dhabi is going to be very different to the one that we start the season with.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It’s very important to keep an open mind.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Aston Martin comfortable with taking risks<\/h4>\n

Teams are presented with a very difficult challenge by these new regulations. Owing to the comprehensive changes on the engine and chassis side, there is always a risk of getting things badly wrong.<\/p>\n

With testing so limited, teams must trust in their own hypothesis and simulation tools in the factory. For various reasons, this creates the possibility for engineers to make fundamentally wrong assumptions.<\/p>\n

As the ground-effect cars demonstrated, recovering from a slow start can be immensely tough.<\/p>\n

Mercedes<\/a>, for example, never truly came back from their ‘zeropod’ solution and the subsequent rebuild that it triggered. Elsewhere, the likes of McLaren only increased their advantage after achieving a better grasp of the basics than their rivals.<\/p>\n

Returning to Aston Martin, there are plenty of reasons to be fearful about the 2026 regulations. So much has changed at the Silverstone factory over the last eighteen months – from the facilities to senior personnel to the power unit.<\/p>\n

Maybe this is the reason why Adrian Newey and Enrico Cardile are so comfortable with a bold approach.<\/p>\n

As Newey explains, time constraints have somewhat forced Aston to take risks:<\/p>\n

“The reality is that we didn\u2019t get a model of the ’26 car into the wind tunnel until mid-April,” <\/em>reveals Aston Martin’s team principal.<\/p>\n

“Whereas most, if not all of our rivals would have had a model in the wind tunnel from the moment the 2026 aero testing ban ended at the beginning of January last year. <\/em>(cont. on next page)<\/p>\n

\"\"
Adrian Newey in Lusail City, Qatar. (Photo by Zak Mauger\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

“That put us on the back foot by about four months. Which has meant a very, very compressed research and design cycle.<\/em><\/p>\n

“The car only came together at the last minute, which is why we were fighting to make it to the Barcelona Shakedown.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Fundamentally, signing someone of Newey’s calibre is not a decision taken if you want to play it safe. For better or worse, Aston are fully committed to the direction the 67-year-old deems appropriate for these regulations.<\/p>\n

In addition, the quality of opposition it is simply to great to allow for a conservative philosophy. The early reliability of Red Bull’s engine<\/a> is a reminder of how quickly engineers across the field can adapt.<\/p>\n

Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari join Laurent Mekies’ squad as obvious threats for 2026.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will have no problem with their car being so visibly distinct from its rivals. As the 2022 Mercedes showed, being different does not always equate to being faster.<\/p>\n

Still, Aston’s technical department were not necessarily anticipating their AMR26 would be so different from the rest of the field. Irrespective of what the competition are doing, Adrian Newey is clear on the areas he believes will be difference-makers with these new machines.<\/p>\n

This is why the car seen in Barcelona, to a large extent, is just a baseline. The British team will further enhance, refine and double-down on their vision over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Time will tell if this decision is the correct one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aston Martin needed only a few laps in Barcelona to become the talk of the paddock. The AMR26 immediately distinguished itself with its competitors, featuring a series of bold and unique solutions. This was hardly a surprise. With Adrian Newey in charge of development, Aston’s 2026 challenger was always going to generate buzz. Still, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":38070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[820,2597,2582],"class_list":["post-38851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-adrian-newey","tag-amr26","tag-f1-2026-season"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38851","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=38851"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38855,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38851\/revisions\/38855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}