Ted Kravitz says while Aston Martin have “tidied up” with the AMR25, the car is the “blankest of blank canvases” as the team awaits Adrian Newey’s input.

Aston Martin hit the track this week in the AMR25, the team completing a filming day at the Bahrain International Circuit before returning to the track on Wednesday for the start of pre-season testing.

‘That Aston Martin is the blankest of blank canvases’

Heading into Day Three of the three-day test, Lance Stroll, at the time of writing, has the fastest time of the Aston Martin drivers with 1:30.229 to put him P6 on the overall timesheet for the test.

It’s been a week of revelations from the Mercedes W16 floor duct to Sauber’s wing mirror assembly, small but notable innovations that the teams hope will give them an edge this season.

But one team that Kravitz believes has yet to take their car to the next level is Aston Martin, and that, he claims, is because they are waiting for design legend Newey to stamp his authority on the F1 2025 car.

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“That Aston [Martin] is the blankest of blank canvases,” he said on The F1 Show. “You look at it, you think, well, yeah, they’ve tidied that up, they’ve tidied that up.

“But intentionally, they’ve said, look, let’s just make this a drivable car, eliminate some of the evils of last year that Fernando and Lance didn’t like and let’s leave it blank for Adrian to come and colour in with all of his genius.

“So if it doesn’t look particularly aggressive or exciting, that’s by design because they’re waiting for Adrian to come and start penning some good stuff and adding bits on.”

However, contrary to Kravitz’s claim, PlanetF1’s tech guru Matt Somerfield highlighted one innovation on the AMR25 that was visible on Day Two, small intakes alongside the Halo.

Revealing that the team had incorporated “Cobra-style winglet” on the AMR25, Somerfield explained in his report: “The region remains unpainted too, just as we find on the leading edge of most of the other aerodynamic surfaces, as it would appear the surface roughness that this provides offers a small but obviously meaningful contribution to its performance.

“It’s unclear what these intakes might be helping to cool at this stage, although it’s likely that there’s a designated region under the AMR25’s where that airflow is being directed, with the cooling of electronic components the most likely recipient, given the amount of airflow being received won’t be hugely significant.

“Moreover, this is more about helping to clean up that region around the cockpit and halo and ties in with the arrival of the Cobra winglet and other geometrical alterations made to the halo fairing.”

Although Newey begins working at Aston Martin on March 3rd, the 26-time championship winner’s mandate is the all-new 2026 car.

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