Unreliable and slow: Aston Martin made a shockingly weak impression during the Formula 1 test drives in Bahrain. There is no sign of Adrian Newey’s hoped-for magic. An F1 legend sees a huge problem for the racing team – and even design guru Newey is in a losing battle.
Can the Formula 1 team Aston Martin, which has been financially massively upgraded by billionaire Lawrence Stroll, tick off the 2026 season? F1 legend Riccardo Patrese asks this question.
Star designer and team boss Adrian Newey “seems lost,” said the Italian at “talkSPORT BET“The team’s biggest problem is not Newey, but engine partner Honda.
The Japanese have been equipping Aston Martin exclusively with engines since this year; Honda was previously linked to Red Bull. “Sometimes Honda seems lost because they can’t deliver the necessary power. And that’s why a good car that Adrian might be able to put in suffers because it doesn’t have the right power,” said Patrese.
He heard that Honda won’t be able to get the engine running properly in the next six months “because they are putting a lot of strain on the battery and the kilowatts that the battery can deliver are not enough to provide the right power,” explained Michael Schumacher’s former teammate.
Formula 1: Must “write off” Aston Martin in 2026
If Aston Martin really needs six months to put together a proper engine package, “their season is over,” predicted Patrese. “Maybe they have to write off the season completely,” said the 1992 runner-up world champion: “Because Honda can’t charge the battery enough to provide the power you need.”
Newey is “certainly worried,” as is boss Stroll. “He put a lot of money into Aston Martin with Adrian Newey at the helm of the project,” said Patrese.
The 71-year-old concluded that he hopes “that Adrian can dominate again as an engineer, as he has done for the last 30 years.” “But it looks like the car may not be competitive this year.”
