Aston Martin have exploited area ‘no other team’ has done with 2025 F1 car

Aston Martin has started pre-season testing hoping that it’s 2025 car will fix a lot of the problems that they faced last year.

Although the team finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship for the second year in a row, they struggled to replicate their form from 2023 which saw Fernando Alonso achieve eight podiums.

Alonso regularly raised the problem of Aston martin’s corning stability with their 2024 challenger, with the Spaniard labelling it ‘fundamental’ after they did various back-to-back tests of parts in the final races.

Aston Martin believes it has fixed Alonso’s problem, boasting an aerodynamic package that is ‘100% new’ according to team principal Andy Cowell.

Discussing their car on Sky Sports F1, technical expert Sam Collins pointed to one area on their car which other teams have yet to exploit.

Aston Martin exploit key area under Halo with AMR25

F1 teams are always looking to extract the final tenths from their cars, whether it’s through saving weight or introducing new aero parts.

Collins pointed to a key development area allowed within the regulations that Aston Martin has exploited, which other teams have yet to bring developments to in 2025.

“The more you look the more you see. Have a look at this little slit inlet underneath the halo on the side of the Aston Martin,” said Collins.

“There is the Halo, the big titanium lump going back into the car, and we’ve got this little cooling inlet underneath it. It’s almost impossible to see. We can’t say for certain what it is cooling, but this is an area of the car that no other team has yet exploited for cooling inlets including Red Bull.”

Such a development is unlikely to be as a result of Adrian Newey’s involvement, as he does not join the team until March this year.

Fernando Alonso faster than Lewis Hamilton in one key area

Testing is well underway at the Bahrain International Circuit, with Alonso and Stroll both completing a combined 190 laps between them.

This is actually the least amount completed by any team so far, which is significant considering McLaren has spent most of its time in the garage doing setup changes to their car for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Alonso was faster than Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in the high-speed corners, which appears to vindicate the assessment made by Aston Martin engineers about fixing their problems in 2024.