Adrian Newey has admitted that Aston Martin’s late begin to its 2026 F1 automotive has left it “at an obstacle” for the upcoming marketing campaign.
Aston Martin unveiled its official livery for the 2026 season on Monday night time, after the AMR26 debuted in an all-black livery when it took to the observe late on the penultimate day of the Barcelona Shakedown on the finish of January.
Newey, who will take over as group principal and oversee the design of Aston Martin’s 2026 Challenger, not too long ago revealed that his group’s automotive started wind tunnel improvement 4 months later than its rivals.
The legendary F1 designer admitted the late begin will “undoubtedly” have an effect on Aston Martin heading into the brand new season.
Requested if the delay would harm Aston Martin, Newey informed Sky Sports activities Information: “To be trustworthy, I am certain it is going to.”
“We entered the tunnel in mid-to-late April, whereas others have been on January 2nd. However greater than that, others have been engaged on CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and basic structure and mechanical structure lengthy earlier than we did. So we’re ranging from the again foot and we’ll do our greatest to catch up.”
“We have been engaged on updates for Race 1 first and now we’re desirous about updates after that. That is the character of F1 anyway, but it surely’s additionally a automotive that has gone by means of this very new regulation and really compressed cycle.”
The 2026 rule evaluate is seen as a key alternative for Aston Martin to attain its lofty ambitions to turn out to be a contender for world championships within the coming years.
Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso has warned Aston Martin may have endurance earlier than competing for victory and the world title.
“I really feel this is a vital second within the Aston Martin mission,” Alonso informed Sky Sports activities Information. “We lastly have the gear, and now our wind tunnel is designing the vehicles as an alternative of a 3rd celebration.
“For the primary time, we’ve our personal gearbox. It is a massive problem, however in a method, for the primary time, we’ve the liberty to design the principle parts of the automotive. We now have Honda as a associate, so all of the items are in place now.”
“Our greatest problem, particularly for me, is gluing the whole lot collectively and timing. Coming from seventh place within the constructors’ championship final yr, we’ve to stroll earlier than we run and we’ve to take it one step at a time.”
“We’re opponents and we need to win and we need to combat for giant issues. I feel it will take a while, however we need to make it as brief as potential.”
