Aston Martin's Slow Start: Newey Focuses on Future

Aston Martin's Adrian Newey prioritizes 2026 car development amid the team's struggles in the 2025 Formula 1 season.

Adrian Newey is fully focused on designing Aston Martin's 2026 Formula 1 car, despite the team's slow start to the 2025 season. Team principal Andy Cowell confirmed that Newey's designing time is dedicated to the future car, saying, “A hundred percent of Adrian's designing time is focused on '26.”

Adrian Newey won't be looking at Aston Martin's current problems 🧠 pic.twitter.com/feJV6UKLIq

— Autosport (@autosport) April 17, 2025

Cowell added that Newey's expertise could still indirectly influence the current car through wind tunnel correlation. However, Newey's priority is meeting deadlines for the 2026 car, which faces a first test at the end of January. “The test is at the end of January so getting a car ready for that point requires slightly earlier decision points and clearly everything's new but there's zero carry over,” Cowell explained.

Aston Martin is currently seventh in the standings, struggling with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll yet to score consistently. Despite finishing fifth in the past two seasons, the team is facing challenges this year. Owner Lawrence Stroll has invested heavily in the team, aiming for a championship.

📰: Adrian Newey is fully focused on developing Aston Martin’s 2026 F1 car, not involved in the 2025 AMR25. His role includes refining development tools like the wind tunnel anyone CFD simulations, with the aim of maximizing the team’s performance under the new regulations.… pic.twitter.com/TfXD8t6yY4

— F1 Naija (@f1_naija) April 17, 2025

Team principal Andy Cowell reported that the team's new wind tunnel at Silverstone is producing high-quality data, saying, “The quality of the data that we get out of the tunnel is very good and it's just a case of aligning it with what we can measure at the circuit.”

Fernando Alonso expressed optimism for a better weekend in Jeddah, supporting Adrian Newey's focus on the 2026 car. Alonso noted that the team is still discovering the car's weaknesses, saying, “We're still actually discovering a little bit the car and some of the weaknesses. I would say that the first four grands prix, the low-speed corners were probably our weakest part of the track.” He added, “But there are some concerns as well of bouncing and other stuff that we are facing from time to time. We are working hard on improving those.”