The Lawrence Stroll-led revolution of Aston Martin’s Formula 1 team hasn’t quite gone to plan.
At the beginning of the 2023 season when Fernando Alonso arrived, it appeared as though they had figured out a way to compete with the sport’s top teams.
Alonso helped Aston Martin achieve six podiums in the first eight races that year and ended up finishing fourth in the Drivers’ Championship.
However, it was notable that his and Lance Stroll’s performances dropped off as the season went on.
Alonso’s incredible battle with Sergio Perez in Brazil in 2023 was one of the few high points of the second part of the campaign and last year highlighted just how off the pace Aston Martin were compared to their rivals.
Although they finished fifth in the standings, Aston Martin were left fighting Williams and even Sauber at times as the rest of the grid made strides forward that they couldn’t match.
Stroll has made changes to the senior hierarchy as a result, with Dan Fallows moving on from his role at Aston Martin.
They are preparing to welcome Adrian Newey to the team alongside Enrico Cardile, with Andy Cowell now stepping up into the role of CEO.
Journalist Jon Noble was speaking on The Race’s YouTube channel and explained the wrong direction Aston Martin have been heading in and what Newey and his new colleagues have to do to solve their current issues.
Aston Martin have ‘old-school obsession’ with chasing downforce on their F1 cars
Noble was asked if Aston Martin are worthy of Newey and said: “I think it kind of needs Adrian Newey’s input to turn things around.
“I think the worthiness is a big problem, I think Adrian knows what he’s coming into.
“I think that team kind of lost its way a little bit but has started addressing things.
“Andy Cowell has come in, looked at things and realised they aren’t going in the right direction.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Aston Martin CEO and team principal Andy Cowell
“I think there was an old-school obsession which a lot of teams have fallen into, Alpine had this same thing, chasing peak downforce thinking the old-school thing, throw the downforce on and it’ll deliver lap time.
“It doesn’t work with this generation of cars, it’s about a usable platform that gives drivers confidence, something McLaren have unleashed, it’s something Mercedes started to understand.
“Red Bull found to its cost if you have a platform that doesn’t suit the drivers things go astray.”
Aston Martin looking at every available opportunity to improve their Formula 1 team
It’s hard to look past just how much work and money is being done behind the scenes at Aston Martin.
The likes of Newey being hired is only the start, with Aston Martin’s new state-of-the-art factory giving them all the resources needed to challenge the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull.
However, these changes take time to implement and all eyes are on how they fare at the beginning of the 2026 season.
READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage
It’ll be the first car that Newey has had a significant influence on, while Honda will also arrive as the team’s exclusive power unit supplier.
Aston Martin will need to be more flexible when it comes to their development approach and understand the different factors that go into making a car fast in both this set of regulations and the next.
Newey already has concerns over Lance Stroll and whether the team can achieve their targets with him in the car.
Add that to the fact that Alonso has to eventually retire from F1 in the short-to-medium term and the direction of Aston Martin’s future suddenly becomes one of the most interesting storylines in the F1 paddock.
