Within the days earlier than the Miami Grand Prix, Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso sat down with the media, together with SB Nationand talked about legendary engineer Adrian Newey and the crew’s plans for the 2026 season.
Now, Newey’s imaginative and prescient could also be coming to life.
Aston Martin launched an in depth interview with the dwelling legend, who joined the crew this spring as its new Managing Technical Accomplice. Within the wide-ranging interview, Newey supplied his newest ideas on the incoming technical laws, that are set to shake up System 1 subsequent season.
Whereas earlier within the yr it appeared Newey was elevating a purple flag in regards to the incoming laws, now it seems he has a imaginative and prescient for find out how to proceed heading into the brand new period.
“My ideas on the ‘26 laws are just like what my ideas had been in regards to the massive regulation change for 2022: initially considering the laws had been so prescriptive that there wasn’t a lot left right here (for a designer), however then you definitely begin to drill into the element and realise there’s extra flexibility for innovation and totally different approaches than first meets the attention,” started Newey when requested in regards to the incoming laws.
Newey then went on to foretell that 2026 would possibly look so much like 2022, when groups introduced drastically totally different ideas to the monitor. Chief amongst these, in fact, was the notorious “zero-pod” idea that Mercedes carried out that season.
“We noticed that firstly of 2022, with groups taking actually fairly totally different instructions. Now, in fact, 4 seasons on, they’ve largely converged, however initially that wasn’t the case. Variation between groups is nice. It’s all a bit boring if the automobiles look similar and the one method you’ll be able to inform them aside is the livery,” stated Newey.
“I feel there’s a excessive chance that in ‘26 we’ll see one thing just like ‘22. There’s sufficient flexibility within the laws, and I’m positive individuals will give you totally different options. A few of these will probably be dropped over the primary two or three years as groups begin to converge.”
Newey additionally pointed to the truth that not solely are the chassis laws altering, however so too are the ability unit laws. Underneath the incoming laws, there will probably be a 50/50 break up between the ability supplied by the inner combustion engine and the battery part.
The engineer believes this additionally creates elevated “alternatives” for groups, just like when hybrid energy items had been first launched in 2014.
“The opposite facet of that is that, for the primary time I can keep in mind, we’ve obtained each the chassis laws and energy unit laws altering on the identical time. That is… attention-grabbing… and barely scary. Each the brand new aerodynamic guidelines and the PU (energy unit) laws current alternatives. I might anticipate to see a variety of aero options, and there might be variation in PU efficiency throughout the grid to start with – which is what occurred when the hybrid laws first got here in, in 2014.”
Newey becoming a member of the crew and specializing in the upcoming set of laws could also be precisely what Aston Martin wants to start out the brand new period of F1 on the entrance foot. Along with the transfer to Honda energy items, now Aston Martin has Newey within the fold — along with his admitted love of taking over the problem of recent laws.
It may make for the best pairing.
“I do take pleasure in regulation modifications,” Newey is quoted as saying in The System. “Maybe the a part of my job I take pleasure in essentially the most is determining what these laws imply, what’s their intention, and if a delicate distinction permits (us to discover) new horizons.”
All through his legendary profession, Newey has typically solved these riddles properly, doing so with pencil and paper alongside along with his legendary pocket book, reasonably than the computer-guided design applications which can be all the trend nowadays.
Take the RB5, his design at Crimson Bull for the 2009 season. That yr introduced sweeping new laws aimed toward bettering overtaking, which included modifications to the bodywork, the tires, and the introduction of the “kinetic vitality restoration system,” or KERS. That design powered Crimson Bull to a second-place end within the Constructors’ Championship, their greatest end result but within the sport. Solely a extra inventive design, the “double diffuser” utilized by Brawn GP on their BGP 001, prevented Crimson Bull from profitable their first title.
However they achieved that the next yr with Newey’s RB6, which was primarily the RB5 with a double diffuser of its personal. Newey believed that automotive generated essentially the most downforce within the sport’s historical past. “The RB6 was most likely the automotive with essentially the most downforce within the historical past of F1, extra even than the legendary spoiler automobiles of the Nineteen Eighties,” stated Newey years later. “We measured as much as 5.5G of lateral acceleration. It may go flat out via Copse at Silverstone.”
Newey spoke of his “belief” in Honda throughout his dialogue with Aston Martin.
“Subsequent yr marks the beginning of our works partnership with Honda. I’ve obtained loads of belief in Honda and an enormous quantity of respect for them, having labored with them earlier than,” added Newey. “They took a yr out of F1 and so, to some extent, they’re enjoying catch-up, however they’re an awesome group of engineers and really a lot an engineering-led firm.”
Whereas Newey’s imaginative and prescient could also be coming collectively for the crew’s 2026 challenger, the legendary engineer was reluctant to make any kind of predictions for subsequent yr.
“There’s no level in daydreaming in regards to the future. It’s about getting on and doing the work. If we do our work appropriately, hopefully issues will come collectively.”
