What Adrian Newey was seen doing at Aston Martin factory before woeful British Grand Prix

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Aston Martin had yet another disastrous weekend in 2026 at the British Grand Prix, but Adrian Newey is absolutely committed to fixing the team’s issues, as his work at the factory proves.

The Silverstone outfit have mostly fixed their vibration issues with the Honda engine, but the AMR26 is still miles off the pace. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were almost five seconds off the pole time at Silverstone.

Both cars finished a lap down in 18th and 19th, respectively, at the British Grand Prix. Onboard footage showed Alonso and Stroll having to rotate their steering wheels upside down to turn the car, while the former also stalled on his way to the grid.

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And will they get one at all?

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Adrian Newey was working 15-hour shifts at the Aston Martin factory before the British Grand Prix

Newey thought Aston Martin would have the best chassis by this point in the season, but that is far from the case. His extreme design choices for the AMR26 have backfired, while Honda’s power unit is desperately unreliable and down on pace.

Newey is not taking responsibility, saying that he did not go in the ‘wrong’ direction with the car. However, the legendary engineer is pushing to find improvements with incredibly long hours at the Silverstone factory.

Journalist Tim Hauraney visited the Aston Martin factory before the British GP, where he discovered that Newey had been doing 15-hour shifts, sketching ideas for new car parts in his office.

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He said via Nailing The Apex: “I went to the Aston Martin factory on Thursday night and I went up into building one and I was getting a little bit of a private tour.

“They’ve separated their mechanical department, aerodynamics, CFD, the wind tunnel, and they’ve separated those computer bays that people work at, and it’s an open concept, so you can see all the way through it.

“And in the far back, I could see this huge, huge piece of Bristol board, it was massive, and it was on an easel and it had rulers on it.

“The thing is huge, man, it’s longer than my wingspan. This is 9:30 at night, I look closer and it’s Adrian Newey. He’s hunched over and he’s drawing on his easel. He’s sketching out parts that he thinks can work on the car.

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“And I’m like, from a distance, just awestruck, because I think he’s a genius and I’m just watching him work.

“I asked the gentleman I was with, ‘How late has he been here?’ He’s like, ‘Well, he started early morning,’ so like 7:30 in the morning. It was 9:30 when I saw him, and he said he’ll probably go to like 11 o’clock.”

The team are hoping to improve their fortunes with an upgrade package for the Hungarian GP. However, it will not be a quick fix, as Aston Martin would still qualify last if it produced the extra two seconds that are hoped for.