Adrian Newey reveals that, other than timing, weight and even out-dated equipment all led to Aston Martin's current predicament.

No matter how you look at it, thus far it has been a disaster for Aston Martin and its new partner Honda. This time last year speculation was rife in terms of Max Verstappen joining the team, as it stands he wouldn't touch the Silverstone-based outfit with a bargepole.

Races have become glorified test sessions, when a car can make it to the flag, but at least the team has the most experienced driver on the grid to give priceless feedback.

It's difficult to know where to begin, such is the engine that the FIA, in creating its controversial ADUO system, had to make special provision for it since it is so far off the pace, but in all honesty the car is little better.

Other than Honda, which provided the engines that powered him to his four titles, Aston Martin had secured the services of numerous high-quality personnel, not least design guru Adrian Newey, hence the obvious speculation over Verstappen, but for once even the man, who has designed championship winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, appears stumped.

"Extremely challenging," he admits, when asked in an interview for his team's site, how challenging the year has been thus far. "On both the chassis side and the power unit side, we've been on the back foot from the start.

"In hindsight, we probably put too much expectation on ourselves," he admits, "and of course, you must never forget the quality of the opposition you're up against across the grid.

"We didn't start serious work on the '26 car until mid-March 2025 and didn't get a model into the wind tunnel until mid-April. That left us several months behind our rivals, and that's a huge gap to close."

Asked if it was timing or whether there were deeper issues, he says: "Timing was a huge part of it, but not the only part.

"We've got a very talented group of people, but as an organisation we weren't yet working together as well as you would like and operating as one cohesive unit. Expectations were sky-high, but the reality of where we were didn't match that.

"On the chassis side, we're quite a long way overweight. Some of that comes from integrating the power unit and dealing with vibration issues we've had to work through with Honda, but we also didn't do as good a job as we should have on our side at saving weight. When you design in a rush, weight is the first thing that suffers because you don't have the time to thoroughly optimise everything.

"Aerodynamically, we also took a bold direction, which was largely pushed by me, without the luxury of exploring multiple concepts in depth because time was against us. I wouldn't say the direction we've taken is fundamentally wrong, but it has thrown up challenges we didn't anticipate.

"Melbourne was the wake-up call," he admits. "Because of various power unit challenges, our first proper running was actually FP3, before that, in Barcelona and at the two Bahrain tests, we spent too much time in the garage just trying to get the power unit to run correctly with the chassis and gearbox.

"You know the idiom, 'it never rains, but it pours', and this is one of those classic cases where it felt like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

"Once we all got over the initial shock of where we were, the (team) reaction was actually very positive, and this is what really sticks in my mind. The whole group pulled together around two clear priorities: first, to pull ourselves out of the hole with a major update before the August break; second, to build the foundations properly for the future.

"It's something every single one of us in the team should be proud of," he insists, "the way we've all pulled together. You walk around the Technology Campus at night and the lights are still on. There are a lot of late evenings, a lot of motivation, and a real determination to prove that we can do this. We have the facilities, we have the people, we have huge amounts of talent. The task is to make it all gel, and to an extent, take the pressure off ourselves so we can breathe and concentrate on medium- and long-term projects, not just the next race.

"That means not only solving our immediate aero and mechanical issues, but also introducing better systems and processes that underpin how we design and build the car."

Asked, in terms of systems and processes, what, specifically, wasn't working, he appears to suggest something similar to what James Vowles experienced at Williams.

"We were relying on tools and processes that had been patched and bodged for years," he says, "you could trace some of them right back to the very early days of the Jordan, long before Aston Martin returned to the grid. At some point, a system that's just patch-on-patch stops being fit for purpose. That's where we had got to.

"The result was a very frustrating car build. Parts weren't being ordered at the right time, not because people weren't doing their jobs, but because the underlying system was failing them.

"We've taken this difficult spell as an opportunity to overhaul how we work," he continues. "We're making big strides in our in-house facilities and production capabilities. You won't see all the gains immediately, but they'll be visible on the updated car: many more components are now produced in-house. The gearbox casing is manufactured here, the floor patterns and floors themselves are made here, and a lot of parts that were previously outsourced have come back in-house.

"That gives us better cost control," he explains, "but more importantly, much greater flexibility and control over our own destiny. Bringing more work in-house gives us better quality control, better responsiveness and a tighter feedback loop from research to design to manufacture."

Rather than introducing smaller updates race by race, the team is aiming for one major upgrade.

"It was a painful decision," he concedes. "While others have been adding performance, we've effectively been standing still in relative terms, so each weekend can feel more painful than the last.

"But we believe it's the right decision, the right investment for our future, if you like. Our partners understand that this is a necessary trying period that we, in truth, probably need to go through to come out stronger, with a decent step forward in the second half of this season and a much bigger one for next year."

Behind the scenes, and in addition to his issues with the car, Newey has been experiencing health issues.

"I'm OK now," he says, "but it's been a difficult period. As I said earlier, it never rains but it pours. In truth, I was not 100 per cent last year. I had to balance health and work much more carefully. The team handled it incredibly well. I kept a very good relationship with the engineers and I don't feel it caused too much of a blip. That's a testament to how adaptable and supportive everyone here is."

Returning to the upgrade, he confirms that it will be in Hungary on both cars.

"The main structural elements remain the same," he reveals, "the chassis and gearbox architecture don't fundamentally change, but we've taken weight out of both, which required re-homologating and crash testing the forward chassis.

"The front suspension is unchanged. The rear suspension is slightly revised. We've developed a new nose and substantially revised aerodynamic surfaces. So, while the core structure is similar, it's a big aerodynamic package coupled with significant weight reduction. The target is to get very close to the weight limit.

"We're predicting a large step, but I'm reluctant to put specific numbers out there. We'll have to see when the car gets on track.

"Historically, at this team, there hasn't been enough investment in engineering simulation tools, not just project management systems, but the core physics tools themselves. We're putting that investment in now, but you don't rewrite and validate those tools overnight. Correlating them properly with the real car takes time. At the moment, they're improving, but the real gains from that work will come later in the year."

Asked about the drivers, who must look forward to each weekend with dread, and on several occasions have admitted as such publicly, he admits: "Both drivers have shown frustration, and at times that has spilled into the media. But it's also understandable. They're competitive animals. They want to fight at the front.

"I've had a lot of conversations with both of them about where we are, where we're going. Fernando is really looking forward to the upgrade and, if it performs we hope he'll be in the cockpit for another season.

"Given his experience, his feel for the car, his ability to guide development, he's a tremendous asset. But he wants to see clear, tangible progress. If we can show that we're moving decisively in the right direction, he's absolutely committed to being behind the wheel."

And looking ahead, to 2027?

"We're in the early research stages," he says. "Right now, it's about the big architectural decisions: where we position the engine in the wheelbase, how we position the chassis, and the fundamental choices that affect very long lead-time items. We're looking at front and rear suspension concepts, gearbox shape, all the things that heavily influence the aerodynamics.

"A key aim is to release the '27 car to production much earlier in the process, so we're not putting everyone under the same pressure we've had this year. That should allow us to optimise weight, stiffness and detail far more effectively."

Of course, an already controversial formula will see further tweaks.

"The most obvious changes are on the power unit side," he says, "five per cent extra fuel, some adjustments to energy storage and deployment, and some finer tweaks.

"On the chassis side, the changes are fewer but still significant. The biggest is to what's often called the 'bib' or 'tea tray' at the front of the floor. The leading edge has been moved by about 300 millimetres, which allows you to run the front of the car lower. That brings a different set of aerodynamic characteristics.

"There's also a slightly shallower rear wing to reduce downforce, some changes to the front of the floor, the 'bear claws' or 'fingers' reducing from five to three, and the removal of various tricks teams have been using around the exhaust and rear wing.

"The key one for us is that front-of-floor change," he admits. "It gives everyone a different aero challenge to solve. Because we've effectively been forced to grow up quickly as a team over the last 12 months, we're in a much better place to capitalise on the regulation changes than we would have been a year ago.

"We're a much more mature organisation now, and that leaves me very optimistic about what's to come."