| Eff-1 | 03-04-2026 07:55 PM |
The Athletic's F1 coverage is really good. They just did a full breakdown of Aston Martin's dumpster fire. In short: Quote:
Lawrence Stroll, the Canadian billionaire, bought the cash-strapped Force India squad in 2018, many big moves followed, with one sole intention: to build the next great Formula 1 team.
First came the Aston Martin rebrand. Then the signing of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel from Ferrari. Then a state-of-the-art, $250million factory, complete with a new wind tunnel. When Vettel retired in 2022, he was replaced by double world champion Fernando Alonso, whose success in early 2023 fueled hope the team was on the cusp of joining F1’s elite.
Securing Honda’s support with an exclusive F1 engine deal from the start of the 2026 season was another big statement. Even greater was the signing of Adrian Newey, the decorated car designer, after he sought an exit from Red Bull.
| Instead..... Quote:
In an interview with Aston’s website, released at the start of February, Newey revealed the team’s wind tunnel “wasn’t on song until April” 2025, one month after he joined the team. Other teams had their first 2026 models in the wind tunnel from the very start of the year.
“That put us on the back foot by about four months, which has meant a very compressed research and design cycle,” said Newey. “The car only came together at the last minute, which is why we were fighting to make it to the Barcelona (test).”
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Honda had to rebuild from its F1 exit — effectively reversed when its deal with Aston for 2026 was announced in mid-2023. Koji Watanabe, the president of Honda Racing Corporation, told reporters in January there had been a “huge reduction of engineers and mechanics” prior to the decision to fully return to F1 for 2026, after which point it went on a recruitment drive for its base in Sakura, Japan.
“So in comparison to our competitors, perhaps you can say that we were behind,” he said, referring to the need to recover its F1 engine staff headcount. “We’re committing to doing everything in developing a very competitive power unit. This is our target.”
| Quote:
hen came the added challenge of getting the new Honda engine into the Newey-designed Aston.
Newey has made a habit of tightly packaging cars through his F1 career, as he seeks every bit of aero advantage possible. By choosing sleek bodywork that fits tight over an engine, teams can significantly reduce car drag levels. This is especially important with the 2026 engines in mind, as they run out of electrical power and struggle to retain top speeds for long. Extra drag makes this worse.
Newey retained his packing philosophy for his first Aston, saying it was “much more tightly packaged than I believe has been attempted at Aston Martin before.”
That can also have a knock-on effect on the engine and has previously negatively occurred with past examples of Newey’s packaging philosophy. Back in 2014, when the previously dominant Red Bull hit trouble with its new Renault engine, the tight packaging and its impact on engine cooling was cited as a contributing factor. Newey did not win another title until Verstappen’s first in 2021.
This time around, it’s the battery that has been Honda’s primary issue with its new turbo hybrid engine. The issue stems from severe vibrations in the internal combustion part of the engine when the car is running on track, with the subsequent battery breakages through testing creating the parts shortage.
| And now we learned the vibrations are risking nerve damange to the drivers, lol.
If that's not all bad enough, they are stuck with Lance Stroll as a driver lol. |
