Adrian Newey says Aston Martin are already more ‘sophisticated’ than Red Bull in one area

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Adrian Newey has joined an Aston Martin team who have never won a Formula 1 Grand Prix. It’s a huge challenge to take on in the final stages of his career.

Aston Martin briefly raced in 1959 and ’60 before returning half a century later as part of a Racing Point rebrand. They have scored nine podiums but never graced the top step.

They’re unlikely to end that wait this year given the disruption to their preparations. Speaking to the team’s official website, Newey revealed that they were four months behind their rivals when it came to getting their 2026 car in the wind tunnel.

Fill in the blank: Aston Martin will finish P_ in the 2026 F1 standings

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Aston Martin only appeared in last week’s Barcelona Shakedown at the end of the penultimate day, so the repercussions are still being felt. Newey is arguably the greatest designer in F1 history and has recently taken over as team principal, but even he will need time to build a winning operation.

Adrian Newey says Aston Martin already have the best wind tunnel in the world

Before joining Aston, Newey worked at Red Bull from 2006 to 2024. In that time, the team won a total of 14 championships and 122 races.

Newey’s cars were often at the forefront of F1 innovation, but towards the end of his tenure, Red Bull’s outdated wind tunnel started to become a considerable hindrance. Aerodynamic upgrades weren’t always delivering the anticipated results.

Red Bull have started building a new facility, which should be in operation in time for next season. But Aston Martin already opened their first wind tunnel in the spring of last year.

99 laps less than every other team – should we be concerned about Aston Martin’s new car? 👀

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Newey, whose only frame of reference in modern F1 is Red Bull, says it will give them a ‘game-changing’ advantage over their competitors.

“The CoreWeave Wind Tunnel is absolutely state-of-the-art,” he said. “I would say it’s probably the best wind tunnel in the world for Formula 1 application.

“It’s very sophisticated, built entirely to our specification, with CoreWeave expertise woven into that. It’s set to be a game-changer for us.

“Aerodynamics is the biggest single performance differentiator in Formula One. Our principal research tool for that is the wind tunnel. It’s absolutely invaluable, and we are now reaping the rewards from it.”

What Adrian Newey noticed when watching Fernando Alonso last year

One of Newey’s primary objectives this season is to make the Aston Martin car easier to drive.

The Silverstone outfit were briefly Red Bull’s closest challengers at the start of the 2023 season, but their performance slowly declined and they were seventh in the pecking order by the end of last season.

Watching from afar, Newey noticed that the Aston Martin was ‘particularly’ difficult for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll to handle.

“The previous generation of ground effect cars from 2022 to 2025 became quite difficult to drive,” he said. “The Aston Martin, unfortunately, was one particular example of that.

“With this new formula, we’re trying to make a car that Lance and Fernando can consistently extract a good level of performance from.”

Newey’s first Aston Martin F1 car has impressed rival teams, but there are fears that Honda’s power unit won’t be on the same level as the car’s standard-setting aerodynamics.