17/04/2025
NEWS STORY
Despite a fundamental issue with its 2025 contender, Adrian Newey is to remain fully focussed on Aston Martin's 2026 car.
The Silverstone-based outfit is currently seventh in the standings, however the majority of the points came amid the chaos of Melbourne, while Fernando Alonso has yet to score a single point.
The team is clearly struggling, and there are fears that the improving Alpine could soon see Aston Martin reduced to battling with Stake at the tail-end of the field.
While the team appears to have a strong future, Alonso is concerned at the present, and is particularly unhappy that a fundamental issue with the 2024 car has carried over, its struggle with mechanical grip in low speed corners.
"Low speed was our weakest sector in Australia, Japan and China, Bahrain is all about low speed and has been our least competitive weekend," he said following another point-less outing in Manama where he finished 15th and his teammate 17th.
"It's tricky at the exit, but also mid-corner," said the Spaniard, "so it's like the car is dying in the low speed. It's a well-known problem that we had last year as well and we still have this year.
"I think we are trying everything we can, so it's not that we are just happy with the results, we just need to make it to the track as fast as possible," he added. "That's where the focus has to be."
Unfortunately, the team's new superstar design guru will be unable to help out.
Asked if the man who has designed title-winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull can assist, team boss Andy Cowell told reporters in Jeddah: "100% of Adrian's designing time is focused on 2026.
"He joined in March," he continued, "so there was a period of him getting up to speed with the regulations, up to speed with the concept work that we've been doing in the preceding couple of months, and there are some tough deadlines to meet for releasing monocoque details and transmission details.
"So getting a car ready for (pre-season testing next January) requires slightly earlier decision points, and clearly everything's new, there's zero carryover. So there's lots of work there and Adrian's just been focused on that."
Asked if Newey has even been able to shed some light on the team's current issue, Cowell was unable to offer any hope.
"His thoughts are focused largely on the tools that we're using rather than any direct performance aspects of the 25 car," he said. "But there is value in Adrian understanding the tools that we've got, the fidelity of those tools, and the precision with which they predict what's going to happen on track."
Of course, while some might understandably that Aston Martin and Newey's approach to this is somewhat cavalier, perhaps a major change to the team's driver line-up could be at stake.