Aston Martin, Newey in a race to sort out dud car ahead of F1 season opener

What do you get when Formula One's most successful car designer takes full control of a team with cutting-edge technology?

A dud, apparently.

The big surprise of F1 preseason testing was seeing design great Adrian Newey's radical-looking Aston Martin at the bottom of the time charts, sometimes slower than new team Cadillac.

Aston Martin arrives at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix this week fighting just to keep its unreliable car running.

At 44, a year at the back of the grid isn't what two-time world champion Fernando Alonso needs, and the difficulties could potentially cause friction with engine supplier Honda.

Newey has been given full control as team principal in arguably his most hands-on role since he was an engineer for Mario Andretti in Indy-Car in the 1980s. So what's gone wrong?

The big problem is that there isn't one big problem.

The Honda engine seems to lack power, but Aston Martin's exclusive works relationship with the Japanese auto giant means there's no other team with a Honda engine to compare it with, or learn from.

Alonso showed great faith in Newey during testing in Bahrain last month, but was more careful with his language about Honda.

"On the chassis there is no doubt. We have the best with us," he said."After 30-plus years of Adrian Newey dominating the sport I think no one will doubt that we will find a way to have the best car eventually.

"On the power unit, we need to wait and see when we unlock all the performance, where we are, what is missing, and then work hard."

The Aston Martin is also unreliable and undercooked after arriving late to the first test and missing valuable time due to breakdowns.

Battery problems limited testing time in Bahrain, as Honda worked on the issue. Aston Martin also seemed to have gearbox trouble and a shortage of parts.

A costly wait

Is Aston's problem not enough Newey?

After agreeing on his exit from Red Bull, Newey had to wait until March 2025 before starting at Aston Martin, at first as "managing technical partner".

That was after other teams were already well under way with their 2026 work. Newey has talked of working long days, and said in November that his wife Amanda complained he was in a "design trance" and unsociable.

"What limited processing power I have is all concentrated on the task in hand, given these pressing deadlines, but that's not a state to stay in for too long," he added.

Newey still sketches out ideas on a drawing board to explore design concepts, and has access to brand-new facilities built at great expense by Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll.

Newey is also skeptical about handing over key design processes to AI.

"Even with AI advancing as rapidly as it is, we're a long way off," Newey said in November.

"It really depends very heavily on human ideas and that really is, I suppose, the essence of Formula One. That ability to conceptualize, to react quickly and to be self-critical."

A winning pedigree

Long before he was an F1 great, Newey shuttled between Britain and the United States in the mid-1980s designing Indianapolis 500-winning cars and getting his hands dirty preparing them trackside for greats like Andretti, his son Michael and Bobby Rahal.

It was a punishing schedule, but all the red-eye flights gave Newey time to develop concepts which later revolutionized F1 design.

"I look back at my ideas now and I can pinpoint which ones I did over the Atlantic," he wrote in his 2017 autobiography.

Newey's designs transformed F1, winning 12 constructors' titles and 13 drivers' championships, from Nigel Mansell's 1992 win with Williams, to Max Verstappen's fourth in a row with Red Bull in 2024.

Newey's exit from Red Bull that year followed 18 years at the team, after record-breaking dominance with his RB19 design the season before.

Agencies Via Xinhua