Newey pinpoints where Aston Martin are making ‘huge strides’ after emotional AMR26 debut

Adrian Newey has described the “emotional journey of passion” behind his very first Aston Martin design, while praising the team for the “huge strides” they are making in terms of working together more cohesively.

F1 design guru Newey joined Aston Martin early last year and played a pivotal role in the newly-launched AMR26, which appeared for the first time at the Barcelona Shakedown and was officially presented in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Speaking at the reveal, Newey said: “It’s great to see the car as it will be racing. [When] we ran the car briefly at Barcelona for a day and a half, it was all black, partly in truth because we didn’t have time to paint it! That was fabulous.

“Funnily enough, Lawrence [Stroll, Aston Martin team owner] and I, when it first pulled out of the garage, with Lance [Stroll] driving, we were standing next to each other in the pit lane, and I think we were both quite close to having a tear in our eye.

“It’s been a long, emotional journey of passion and a lot of hard work to get it to Barcelona, and to see the car now paired with the livery it will be racing with is of course how everybody will see it, so it’s a very important part.”

Newey initially arrived at Aston Martin as their Managing Technical Partner, but the 67-year-old has also taken on Team Principal duties for the 2026 season in another change to the squad’s leadership structure.

Since his time onboard, and around that recent managerial reshuffle, Newey believes the workforce at Aston Martin’s state-of-the-art Silverstone headquarters have become a more unified and effective team.

“I think first of all, it’s a lovely building to work in,” Newey said of the AMR Technology Campus. “It has a good atmosphere, it’s a pleasant environment, because let’s face it, a lot of us have been doing 12-hour days, if not more, over the last months, so having a pleasant feeling to the room you’re working in is very important.

“The layout of the building is very conducive to everybody working together, it’s all very centralised, and the facilities are second to none. Lawrence’s vision and investment into this building have given us, without doubt, the best facilities in F1, and that’s a tremendous asset.

“But it’s clearly only one part of the equation. The equally important one, the second part, is the personnel that populate that building and how they work together, and that’s the bit that I feel we’re making huge strides on at the moment.”

Aston Martin are now turning their attention towards this week’s opening pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit, where the F1 grid will continue to learn about their 2026 challengers.

While Newey’s AMR26 attracted plenty of attention and comments at the Barcelona Shakedown, the Briton is keeping expectations in check ahead of the campaign getting under way – while stressing how quickly cars are likely to change in the first year of a new ruleset.

“Whenever there’s a big regulation change, there’s always huge opportunities,” he commented. “It’s who spots what and which one is the ultimate, or proves to be the correct solution. Only time will tell.

“I think this year there’s likely to be a huge amount of development. I would imagine that for many teams, including to an extent ourselves, the car that they ran in Barcelona will be a fair bit different to the car they actually race in Melbourne. That [development] pace, I’m sure, will continue through the season.”