Adrian Newey has admitted to one specific area around Aston Martin’s nightmare 2026 Formula 1 season that he feels “guilty” for.
The Silverstone-based squad arrives at its home race this weekend with just one championship point on the board, following a problem-laden opening eight races.
Newey has this week spoken to AstonMartinF1.com about the problematic beginning to the campaign, and confessed the development of the AMR26 began late to a point where it left Aston significantly behind in comparison to its rivals.
And the lack of running in Bahrain was really the first real telltale sign of the problems to come, which publicly reared their heads in Melbourne.
But the car’s much-needed upgrades suite is set for a debut in Hungary, the product of commendable hard work and dedication from the entire of the team’s backroom staff.
And speaking to media, including Motorsport Week, as well as other invited guests at its technology campus on Thursday, Newey spoke out further on the troubles the team has faced and the solutions it has provided.
“First of all, we only really got properly running in FP3 at Melbourne, so we were very much on the back foot through various pre-season testing problems,” he said. “So our learning curve was behind.
“Because it became quite very obvious, very quickly, that we were not going to be competitive in the early races, so we took the painful – but I believe correct – decision to not do any development through the first half of the year, knowing that that would actually mean we, as everybody else develops, the gap to the front would actually get bigger, not smaller, but with the view to then really getting ourselves better organised.
“Putting lots of different systems into place for the future, and then really doing our research properly, because the 2026 car was done in a very compressed timescale.
“So it’s enabled us to step back a bit, take a bit of pressure off ourselves, because we actually put ourselves under too much pressure over the winter, and take a deep breath and really understand our problems.
“What we need to achieve, both medium-term, which will be with this upgrade package that we hope to have ready in Hungary as the first stage.
“[The] Second stage in Zandvoort, and then, long-term, meaning decisions that will put us in a stronger place through this coming winter and into the 2027 season.
“So that’s what we’ve done, and thank you everybody for their patience and understanding, because it’s very painful for us, and for everybody and our partners, to see our current performance, but hopefully this will soon be a distant… painful still, but distant memory.”
Alonso and Stroll ‘counting down the pain’ for Aston Martin upgrade
Newey continued that he understands the level of frustration that both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll must be feeling, as they are irrepressibly stuck at the foot of the grid, consistently being lapped every race.
And the famed technical designer was open in his feelings of contrition at the duo for not being able to devote more time to them as the team strives to remedy its depressing predicament.
“You know drivers, they feel, what they drive, and they see what they see at the race track, predominantly,” he said. “And, of course, for them it’s been extremely frustrating to not be able to race competitively with all the problems we’ve had,” he said.
“I took a bit of time two weeks or so ago going through with both Fernando and Lance exactly what we’re doing, what we have planned for the upgrade package, what we have learned through going into the 2027 season, and how we are… whilst it might not seem like it, we are very much listening to their comments and trying to act on them.
“I think if people don’t feel as if they’re being heard, they get very frustrated – it’s a human reaction, so I’ve absolutely been guilty of not spending enough time with Fernando and Lance back here, so I’m going through exactly what we are trying to achieve with the upgrade package, and as I say, going into next season.
“It’s now getting closer, so they’re kind of counting down the pain, and will see what hopefully will be a good step forward.”
Aston are now collectively close to the first phase of its progression, and with just two races to go until that initial upgrade, the team is chomping at the bit to see whether the changes will see the lap times shorten.
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