Fernando Alonso believes everyone at Aston Martin is “aligned” on when and how to focus on the 2026 rule changes to avoid a “painful” Formula 1 campaign next year.
In 2026, F1 is undergoing a major shake-up with changes to the chassis, aerodynamics, engines and tyres.
For a team like Aston Martin, which has experienced stagnation developing under the current ruleset, 2026 represents a massive opportunity to launch itself to the front of the grid.
In order to do this, Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll has assembled a series of components geared towards success including a Honda works engine deal (starting next year), a state-of-the-art wind tunnel plus the services of Andy Cowell and Adrian Newey.
Speaking to select media including Motorsport Week during pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, Alonso revealed that unless Aston Martin is in the hunt for a championship this season, it makes sense to switch focus early on developing a car for 2026.
“I think we are all aligned on this,” he said.
“We want to do the best 2025 possible, but knowing that 2026 is a big reset in terms of regulations and performance.
“If you are fighting for the World Championship in 2025, it’s a different story, you cannot give up too much because you don’t know, there is no guarantee that you will fight in ‘26.
“So, you need to take what you can take. But if you are not fighting for the World Championship in 2025, I think it doesn’t change too much to be in one position up and down.
“If that costs something for 2026, that will be painful.
“But I think we have the right management, we have the vision of Lawrence, we have Andy, we have Adrian.
“So, I think we have the best people to make whatever decision and we will agree and we will be happy with that.”
Aston Martin has a big task transitioning into a works team
Aston Martin CEO and Team Principal Cowell holds a similar opinion to Alonso with regards to switching from 2025 to 2026 development.
“Yeah, that’s a huge topic for all 10 teams,” he said.
“For us, there are areas of our business that are already 100% focused on 2026.
“So concept engineering groups are just focused on 2026 because 2025’s done from their perspective.
“As we go through the year, every single department will do that transition from partially on 2025 to fully on to 2026, with the majority of the engineers that are here, the race team, the last ones to transition across.”
Cowell added that if the team were to be contenders from the get-go, that would drive Aston Martin’s development path.
“You know, if you get a 1-2 in the first race, you’re going to be chasing another 23 of those to try and win the championship,” he explained.
“And just depending on where you are in the pecking order depends [on] what you do.”
However, it’s not just developing a car to capitalise on the new rules that is important for Aston Martin.
Switching from a Mercedes customer team to a works outfit in partnership with Honda adds a longer list of items that need to be created in-house at Aston Martin in time for next season.
“I think our situation for next year, we’re transitioning from being a customer team this year with Mercedes powertrain to a works team with Honda, with Aramco fuels and Valvoline lubricants, and creating our own transmission and rear wishbones and so on,” Cowell explained.
“It is a step up for us. It’s a challenging jobs list in front of us over the next 12 months.
“We’re striving to do really well at it in every area.”
READ MORE – Fernando Alonso: McLaren F1 turnaround an ‘example’ for Aston Martin to pursue
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