Adrian Newey has explained how “getting to a point of respectability” is the “immediate goal” for Aston Martin with the introduction of their upgrade package at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Aston Martin have endured a painful 2026 season so far, with their AMR26 car – penned by F1 design guru Newey – and Honda’s power unit failing to live up to expectations, leaving the squad cut adrift at the back of the F1 field.
At the Hungaroring on Friday, with a whopping 16 updates reported in the FIA’s pre-weekend submission document, Aston Martin’s overhauled car hit the track – Fernando Alonso finishing Free Practice 1 in a solid 13th position, 2.4 seconds off the pace.
Newey, who is both Managing Technical Partner and Team Principal at Aston Martin, subsequently joined Friday’s team representative press conference to answer an array of questions about the new package, and how it is performing so far.
“It’s very early days in terms of understanding it,” said Newey, who started work at Aston Martin last March, having previously won world titles with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull. “The provisional results are promising.
“It’s only part of the package. We’ll have some more steps in [Zandvoort], and then further steps in Monza and Baku. It’s the first part of our planned upgrade.
“We’re very short on parts, so we’re being careful and trying to learn all about it.”
Opening up on the changes, he explained: “It’s an evolution in as much as the chassis is the same, the layout is the same, the front suspension is the same. It’s very much an aerodynamic evolution.
“We were very short on research time prior to launching the car in Barcelona [in January], so it’s really been a matter of taking step back, trying to understand, and going forward with this package.”
Newey was then asked about the performance goals Aston Martin have set for the Budapest weekend, and the second half of the season as a whole – initially drawing a coy response from the experienced engineer.
“I’ve never been a fan of setting goals,” he commented. “I’m much more a fan of working logically through problems, getting everybody working together, getting the culture together, and at that point, you end up where you end up.
“What I have found over the years is, when you’re not winning, it seems an impossible mountain to climb, and when you are winning, sometimes you’re not sure how you got there, because you’re not actually doing anything differently, or you don’t feel as if you’re doing anything differently.”
Put to him that this could be the end of a nightmare and the start of a dream for Aston Martin, Newey smiled: “Hopefully! These first races have been a complete nightmare.
“Hopefully we can get at least to a point of respectability now – I think that’s the immediate goal. Then from there, we can try to keep moving forwards.”
Newey also took a moment to address Lance Stroll’s stoppage during first practice, with the Canadian dramatically spinning out between Turns 2 and 3, and the team subsequently reporting a suspected rear-left suspension issue.
“As you can imagine, everybody’s feverishly trying to understand exactly what went wrong, and what happened, as we speak,” said Newey. “It’s only once we have that understanding that we can comment on what we do next.”
Pushed on whether that part of the car was new, he added: “The area involved has actually not been changed. We are short on spares, because the cladding and so forth is different. There are some minor changes to that area. In that sense, it’s very unexpected.
“As I said, until we have an understanding, it’s difficult to comment further.”
