Adrian Newey has admitted that Aston Martin did not involve Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll enough in the development of the 2026 F1 car. The team principal and technical director of the British racing team understands that the drivers became frustrated by the difficult start to the new regulatory era and the lack of visible progress in the first half of the season.
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Aston Martin had an extremely disappointing start to 2026 and after nine Grands Prix has only one World Championship point. After the team mainly had to focus on solving persistent reliability issues during the first races, it decided to save major upgrades for later in the season. Meanwhile, the competition was able to continue building on their own packages. According to Newey, this approach led to Alonso and Stroll feeling that their feedback was not sufficiently taken into account.
Frustrations
In an interview with The Race, Newey emphasized that the situation was ‘enormously frustrating’ for both drivers. He indicated that he therefore had extensive talks with Alonso, Stroll, and test and reserve driver Jak Crawford about the plans for the rest of the season and development towards 2027. “Although it may not seem so, we do listen to their comments and try to act on them,” the Englishman stressed. “If people feel they are not being listened to, they naturally get frustrated; that is a human reaction.”
“Maybe we didn’t spend enough time explaining exactly what we want to achieve with the upgrade package to Fernando, Lance, and Jak,” he admitted. Aston Martin’s first major upgrade will follow during the Hungarian GP, after which a second development step will take place during the Dutch GP at Zandvoort. Engine supplier Honda will also introduce a revised power unit there. The upgrades are intended to create a so-called ‘B-spec’ AMR26, with lighter components and improved aerodynamics.
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Future-oriented
Newey defended the choice not to implement smaller updates earlier in the season and stated that the team deliberately took time to thoroughly analyze the problems. “It quickly became clear that we would not be competitive in the first races,” he explained. “That is why we made the painful – but in my opinion correct – decision not to carry out further development in the first half of the year. We knew this would cause our gap to the frontrunners to grow as other teams developed further.”
“We focused on better organization, setting up various systems for the future, and thoroughly investigating the current package,” Newey assured. “That allowed us to temporarily take a step back. We reduced the pressure because we had put too much pressure on ourselves during the winter,” he continued honestly. “In the meantime, we have been able to catch our breath and better map out the problems. We now know what we need to achieve in the medium term, both with the upgrades in Hungary and with the next step in Zandvoort. Hopefully, this period will soon be just a painful but distant memory,” he concluded.
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