“As executive chairman I am proud of what this moment represents, because what defines this team is not only what happens on track. Formula 1 demands courage and rewards those willing to build something extraordinary and to remain unwavering in their ambitions.”
With these words, Lawrence Stroll opened Aston Martin’s launch on Monday evening at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Ithra, home to title sponsor Aramco. The team owner spoke of a new era for Aston Martin, which is understandable given the works deal with Honda and the fact that the AMR26 is the first F1 car from the team designed by Adrian Newey.
Add to that the new campus and wind tunnel, and all the ingredients for long-term success seem to be in place. It was no coincidence that Stroll senior emphasised during the launch that he would provide all the tools needed to win, while Newey stated that the Silverstone-based team now has the best facilities in Formula 1.
“The facilities are second to none. Lawrence’s vision and investment into this building has given us, without a doubt, the best facilities in Formula 1. And that’s a tremendous asset,” Newey said.
Despite that, Monday’s message in Saudi Arabia was a slightly different one. Aston Martin mainly wanted to manage expectations for the start of the season, which was echoed by both Newey and the drivers: it is not decisive where the team stands in Australia; what matters most is how development progresses afterwards.
“The unique thing this year is that the rate of development is going to be very, very high for everyone, because of the new regulations and the complexity of the power units as well,” Alonso said.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Aston Martin Racing
“So I’m not really too concerned about Bahrain or the first couple of races, because I think the championship and having a good or bad season is going to play a little bit more in the second half of the season than in the first half of the season.
“So for us it’s important to finish in Bahrain with a good understanding of the car and then from that point think more in races seven, 10 or 12 or whatever and have a clear path of development.”
Lance Stroll, for his part, joked about George Russell winning in Melbourne by a margin of 30 seconds. Although that was mainly intended as a joke, there was a serious undertone to it. The Canadian said he is indeed expecting significant differences at the start of the season.
Honda’s situation remains a key question mark
Aston Martin is playing the long game, but what exactly is behind that?
To begin with, it is linked to its power unit partner Honda. The Japanese brand has been very cautious in recent months. Although that is partly in line with Honda’s traditionally cautious communication style, it is also true that its F1 project is now somewhat different from the period it had with Red Bull.
Last year, Koji Watanabe acknowledged that many people had been moved away from the F1 project and redeployed to other R&D activities. It relates to Honda’s decision to officially leave F1 at the end of 2021. The Japanese brand subsequently struck a deal with Red Bull to continue operating its power units until the end of 2025, but the impact had already been felt. As a result, Honda has had to rebuild its project to some extent following the deal with Aston Martin.
Honda power unit
Photo by: Honda
The facilities in Sakura are still state of the art, although building a new relationship takes time – with Watanabe acknowledging on Monday that distance can be a complicating factor.
“Our engineers often fly to Silverstone, and also engineers from Aston Martin are working very hard in our factory in Japan. So this in itself is a challenge, and maybe flight costs are a little bit of a disadvantage for us compared to the European manufacturers,” Watanabe admitted.
“But sometimes the time difference is also a favour for us. If we send a question to Silverstone at the end of the working day in Japan, then the next morning, we have already received the answer. It’s a kind of 24-hour development.”
Because of these practical matters and also the ongoing controversy surrounding the compression ratio, it could be that things take a bit more time on the power unit side – for which the ADUO system does offer possibilities.
“Obviously we don’t have much information,” Alonso said when asked about Honda’s situation. “I only know the information that you know, the messages that they were saying that they were a little bit behind.
“But this is a long game and I’m sure that even if we start a little bit behind, there is plenty of time to catch up. The second part of the season is going to be more important than the first part, in my opinion.”
Fernando Alonso & Adrian Newey, Aston Martin
Photo by: Aston Martin
Newey opted for a concept with room for development
Interestingly, this idea is also reflected in Newey’s design. The delay with the all-new wind tunnel and his own period of gardening leave – during which he came up with the overall concept of the AMR26 – meant that Newey felt he was only able to start working relatively late.
The result as seen on track in Barcelona looked particularly aggressive and interesting, but according to Newey it was only a first step.
“I think this year, there’s likely to be a huge amount of development,” he said. “I would imagine that for many teams, including to an extent ourselves, the car that they ran in Barcelona pre-season will be a fair bit different to the car that they actually race in Melbourne. That pace, I’m sure, will continue through the season.”
And this is precisely what has been crucial to Newey’s approach. Above all, he wanted to come up with a concept that offers room for development. Initially, all the fundamentals had to be right, after which all other elements – including the car’s bodywork – can be adjusted during the season.
“We’ve attempted to build something that we hope will have quite a lot of development potential,” Newey explained.
“What you want to try to avoid is a car that comes out quite optimised within its window but lacks a lot of development potential. We’ve tried to do the opposite, which is why we’ve really focused on the fundamentals, put our effort into those, knowing that some of the appendages – wings, bodywork, things that can be changed in season – will hopefully have development potential.”
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
Photo by: Aston Martin Racing
By those fundamentals, Newey is referring to the overall concept and the front and rear suspension, which is the area where rivals are most impressed by Newey’s creation and describe the design as “extreme” – particularly at the rear of the car.
“It starts with the overall packaging of the car: where is the car carried over the wheelbase, where are the main masses carried,” Newey added. “Then it’s worked through to the front and rear suspension – the front and rear suspension both have their own very important part to play in that manipulation of the flow field.”
If Newey has managed to get those fundamentals of the AMR26 right, then the foundation should at least be solid and can be developed significantly over the course of the season. It explains why ‘development’ was the buzzword during the launch event in Saudi Arabia and why that aspect is considered even more important internally than the team’s exact position in Melbourne.
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