The head of Aston Martin on the track and in the factory, Andy Cowell, has sensibly varied his speech. If in Bahrain, in preseason, he talked about Adrian Newey “to work in a 2026 car and in the 2025”, a week before his arrival at the factory, in Arabia he has confirmed that the Guru of the F1 is focusing exclusively on the car next year.
Perhaps it was the initial idea of Aston and Newey himself, leaking a hand if he could in a car that was born completely crooked and does not yield in any particular field. “In this car we have no strength,” said a little diplomats Lance Stroll when he reached the Jeddah circuit.
Fernando Alonso, after a session this season.
According to ‘Motorsport.com’ in its Italian edition there may be reasons why this AMR25, as its predecessor, is so erratic on track. Apparently, in Silverstone they would have evaluated the car model (always on a 50%scale) in the new wind tunnel that has been operating for four weeks and the result has been frustrating.
“The car, designed by the man who was later fired (Dan Fallows), was conceived in the Mercedes wind tunnel in Brackley. The model, once the brand new wind tunnel built in Silverstone was calibrated, was transferred to the new facilities, where the numbers no longer square and ventured into a development becomes terribly complicated. In addition, the rules of the FIA preve 2025 is developed in Mercedes, while the 2026 is being developed internally (in the new tunnel).
If true, and there is no reason to doubt it, the case has very little solution. In Aston they should already work completely in the 2025 and 2026 car in their new installation and not in the tunnel they rented so far the team directed by Toto Wolff and that in 2023 had them against the strings as a client of engines, gearbox, suspensions and aerodynamics.
Actually without Aston will not get podiums or victories this year, it can be taken as “a transition,” Alonso has pointed out. And even more, being in the tail of the World Cup in Constructors, in July they will be granted more hours of wind tunnel (up to 115%, for 75% of McLaren for example), to give the last push to the AMR26 of which Newey is already in charge at the moment. It is a minor evil, despite the implementation of the image, which can be assumed to try to be one of the dominant cars, next to the new Honda engine, next year.
It hurts right now, but Alonso’s message is clear, “you have to do perfect weekends this year and put something else. You have to tighten your teeth,” said Asturian. In the Headquarters they know about the car they are offering them to Spanish and Stroll, the owner’s son, as if to be engaged in hiring Max Verstappen. If in 2026 there is a car, they will have pilots to get performance.
Cowell responded in Arabia to the rumors of a possible offer to Verstappen that appeared today in ‘La Gazzeta dello Sport’. “I am as clear as Alonso. We are fortunate to have him and launch with long -term contracts and we focus on having the best possible car.” They do not think of a change of pilots, in their words., But in matters that bring them head over that right now.
Cowell recognizes it
Cowell himself confirmed in Jeddah what was published in Italy. “The car we are using was created far from our wind tunnel. We are learning a lot from what we see in the car, we have a 2025 model in our tunnel and we spend checking a lot of time between the world of data and the real one,” the technician and ‘main team’ told the international press.
“We want to understand the differences, listen to the pilots and what the car does to understand the characteristics of which we must improve in order to improve soon,” he added
“We are completely focused on the data and technology we get from our wind tunnel. The data is good, but the circuit is the real world, the car bounces and the track has characteristics such as Bahréin’s asphalt. The wind tunnel gives us other visions to make better car. We use it from Australia,” confirmed, but without saying if it is the 2025 or 2026 car.