Aston Martin find themselves in no man’s land heading into the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Back-to-back fifth-place finishes in the constructors’ championship don’t tell the full story of what’s currently happening at Aston Martin.
Fernando Alonso arrived in time for the 2023 season and achieved eight podium finishes during his first campaign with the team.
His teammate Lance Stroll scored several decent finishes as well, but as the year went on, they watched the likes of Mercedes and McLaren overtake them in the development race.
Mike Krack’s team finished 22 points behind McLaren, but 12 months later, while their position in the championship hadn’t changed, the margins had exponentially grown.
Aston Martin held onto fifth, but were 374 points behind the team above them in the standings – Mercedes – on this occasion.
In fact, towards the end of last year, Aston Martin’s drivers were regularly struggling to get out of Q1 such was their regression throughout the campaign.
Lawrence Stroll has invested heavily in both the team’s infrastructure and personnel and his showpiece signing is Adrian Newey.
The design genius has been brought in from Red Bull and journalist Piergiuseppe Donadoni believes that he’s already influencing Aston Martin’s development plans.
Adrian Newey asks Aston Martin to avoid using new wind tunnel before his arrival
Journalist Federico Albano was speaking to Donadoni on Autoracer’s livestream and said: “For Aston Martin, it seems to be that everything is being designed for the 2026 project in the meantime.
“In short, it’s a bit of a drag, that’s my impression.”
Donadoni replied: “By the way, on Aston Martin, they are making a good move in the sense that the new wind tunnel is almost ready.
READ MORE: What Adrian Newey did in 2022 at Red Bull that left rival designers ‘open-mouthed’ in admiration
“So, they are not yet in the tunnel with the 2026 car, but what they are doing is they are using a strategy of saving hours in the tunnel to wait for Adrian Newey.
“So, in these first weeks of the year, they are using fewer hours in the tunnel than they could use to be able to have more time between now and June 30.
“They want to exploit Adrian Newey for the 2026 project especially, so it’s a strategy that he wanted which is very interesting and very intelligent because they don’t have the tunnel ready yet, but it will be ready in a few days.
“You still don’t have Newey yet and therefore surely for them, it’s a transition year.”
Aston Martin are going all-in on the 2026 Formula 1 championship
There have already been suggestions that Aston Martin are going to struggle in 2025, but it appears as though their focus is on next season.
Aston Martin have built a state-of-the-art factory that includes their own wind tunnel, having been forced to use Mercedes’ for the past few years.
Newey is one of several important backroom staff signings made by Stroll to lift Aston Martin from F1’s midfield to the front of the grid.
READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Andy Cowell is highly rated by the entire F1 paddock and will be leading the project, with Enrico Cardile also brought in from Ferrari to work alongside Newey.
Formula 1’s new regulations in 2026 offer Aston Martin the perfect opportunity to take full advantage of a reset in the sport so that they can make up ground on their rivals.
Allowing Newey to use Aston Martin’s wind tunnel time in the way that he likes makes perfect sense and gives the Silverstone-based outfit the best chance possible to be a championship contender next year.
