Aston Martin team chief on current issues with AMR25: “List is still long”

Aston Martin CEO and team principal Andy Cowell has confirmed that “the jobs list is still long” to correct some issues on the AMR25.

Lance Stroll has secured 10 points for the Silverstone outfit over the Australian and Chinese Grand Prix weekends. However, his team-mate Fernando Alonso sits at the bottom of the drivers’ standings after suffering two retirements in Melbourne and Shanghai.

While speaking to the media, including Motorsport.com, ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend in Suzuka, Cowell explained:

“The midfield is exceptionally tight and almost when you look at it from sector to sector, lap to lap, that moves around, which shows optimising really well the setup of the car we’ve got could move us, you know, plus or minus two places. 

“So, we’re trying to put a lot of effort into making sure that we really do optimise and for the right point in the race weekend. I guess these cars, although you can follow better than a previous generation, it’s still the case that the car is a lot happier if it’s not following a car. 

“Therefore qualifying performance is important. And I guess just going to the last bit of your question, there are some things that we’re pleased with that we’ve done over the winter. But as ever, when you’ve got your eyes open and you’re only happy if you win, which we haven’t, there’s always a list of things that you’d like to improve. 

“So, some things have moved forward in a good direction. The jobs list is still big though, with lots of things to work on.”

When quizzed on the specifics of the issues, Cowell explained:

“I was thinking about this yesterday as I was travelling. How do you prioritise? And you should prioritise on what the biggest thing is. I think as ever with this sport, it’s never one thing, there’s never one standout area to work on. There are always many areas to work on, each providing a small contribution to the game that you’re trying to achieve. 

“So, my conclusion at the end of yesterday with time travelling on very impressive Japanese trains coming back from Sakura was that we need to work on everything that we can see and spread the resources out in order to do that. And a lot of the work, where we’re trying to improve our toolset and our methods, that will carry over to 2026 as well.”

With Stroll’s 10 points, the British team sits in seventh in the constructors’ standings behind Haas in sixth with 14 points.