Adrian Newey has detailed how Aston Martin “should be proud” of how it has dealt with the “wake-up call” the team has faced in its difficult start to the Formula 1 season.
The Silverstone-based squad has been forced to start the season with a plethora of issues, in what is its first season in an exclusive power unit deal with Honda.
Its uncompetitiveness and comparative lateness in the production of the AMR26 left the team accepting its fate, with a lack of testing miles completed in pre-season.
And when the team arrived in Melbourne for Round 1, Newey dropped the bombshell revelation that the vibrations caused by the battery in Honda’s engine was leaving both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll at risk of “permanent nerve damage”.
Speaking to AstonMartinF1.com, Newey explained how its first genuine on-track outing had not yet come when he told the world’s press of that vibration issues.
“Melbourne was the wake‑up call,” the Team Principal said. “Because of various power unit challenges, our first proper running was actually Free Practice Three at the Australian Grand Prix. Before that, in Barcelona and at the two Bahrain tests, we spent too much time in the garage just trying to get the power unit to run correctly with the chassis and gearbox.
“You know the idiom, ‘it never rains, but it pours’, and this is one of those classic cases where it felt like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.”
‘We’ve all pulled together’
Instead of moping around and feeling sorry for themselves, the entire Aston crew rallied together, along with Honda, to start finding solutions for the myriad of problems.
For Newey, this is a moment that he looks back on with fondness – a rare moment of light in a dark time for the British marque.
“Once we all got over the initial shock of where we were, the reaction was actually very positive, and this is what really sticks in my mind,” he revealed. “The whole group pulled together around two clear priorities: first, to pull ourselves out of the hole with a major update before the August break; second, to build the foundations properly for the future.
“It’s something every single one of us in the team should be proud of – the way we’ve all pulled together.
“You walk around the AMR Technology Campus at night and the lights are still on. There are a lot of late evenings, a lot of motivation, and a real determination to prove that we can do this. We have the facilities, we have the people, we have huge amounts of talent. The task is to make it all gel – and to an extent, take the pressure off ourselves so we can breathe and concentrate on medium‑ and long‑term projects, not just the next race.
“That means not only solving our immediate aero and mechanical issues, but also introducing better systems and processes that underpin how we design and build the car.”
Aston’s home race at Silverstone is this weekend, and will hope for some typical drama from the Northamptonshire circuit to give the team a result to smile about.
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