In 2023, after five races, Aston Martin had four podiums and 102 points in the standings, generally positioning itself as the second strongest team behind Red Bull. However, just twelve months later, after the same five races, that tally has been more than halved, with the British team only managing 40 points, which has further shrunk this year, stopping at 10.
This is a clear sign of regression for the Silverstone team, which has collected only one-tenth of the points it earned two years ago. Although it’s true that Aston Martin is already focused on 2026, when a new technical cycle will begin and offer the opportunity to start fresh, 2025 cannot be a “wasted” year, quite the opposite.
Aston is still a team in development, with many new engineers joining in recent years, and more key figures expected in the coming months; it is therefore logical that there needs to be a period of adjustment for the team to work in unison, which cannot be achieved in just a few weeks. But 2025 will also be a testing ground for the future.
The most alarming statistic is that, after five race weekends, Aston Martin is the team that has improved the least compared to the previous season, with an average gain of only two and a half tenths compared to 2024, almost a third of Red Bull’s improvement, which has gained six tenths.
These numbers shouldn’t be taken as absolute references, since the resurfacing of the tracks in China and Japan lowered lap times considerably. However, when averaging across all teams, the picture becomes even clearer: Aston has been the team with the least improvement in four of the five races so far, with the exception of Australia, where Haas faced unexpected bouncing problems.
This scenario is further confirmed when focusing on specific races, like in Saudi Arabia, where the AMR25 was the only car not to beat its time from the previous year. Without a doubt, the higher temperatures played a role, but it is also true that Pirelli had brought softer compounds that provided more grip during the lap.
It is clear, however, that when you are the only team not to have improved the 2024 time, and when you also experience a degradation almost touching half a second, the situation becomes concerning for the future, as more races may emerge with similar challenges.
What’s Behind the Struggles
To understand the roots of these difficulties, we need to take a step back. The AMR23 had proven to be a car that always performed best with high-downforce setups, excelling in slow sections but struggling on straights and fast corners.
That’s why, with the AMR24, the 2024 season car, the engineers tried to address the areas where the car had shown the most difficulties the previous year, improving both straight-line performance, especially with open DRS, and performance in fast corners. However, the compromise didn’t pay off, partly due to a troubled development process that pushed Aston further down.
With the AMR25, the decision was made to take a step back, returning to the basics in hopes of recovering the lost performance in slow corners, aided by a newly designed front wing aimed at correcting understeer. Paradoxically, though, the AMR25 doesn’t seem to have completely changed its philosophy, despite the new direction chosen by the engineers in the winter.
“I’d say that in the first four races, the low-speed corners were probably the most difficult part. But there are also some bouncing issues and other things we need to address from time to time. We’re working hard to improve these aspects. Here, there’s a lot of grip, many high-speed corners,” Fernando Alonso commented before the Jeddah GP.
Realistically, the underlying problem is that, compared to 2024, the expected increase in downforce has not materialized, while the competitors have made more significant improvements. This is an “inheritance” from last year’s car, whose development was quite troubled.
In an attempt to increase aerodynamic downforce, the engineers made the AMR24 a car that was overly sensitive at times, making it difficult to drive. This pushed the team, for instance, to backtrack and abandon some new solutions in favor of older ones that, overall, were more effective in terms of downforce-driveability balance.
It’s no coincidence that Aston ended the season alternating between two different floors, one for slower tracks and one for faster ones. One of the goals for 2025 was precisely to make the car more driveable, a goal on which progress has been made, but in the meantime, the needed increase in downforce to match the development pace of the competitors has not happened.
This could indicate that Aston Martin may need to keep a more rear-loaded configuration to improve balance and compensate for possible downforce shortages. Not by chance, Aston maintained one of the most rear-loaded setups in Jeddah, keeping a solution similar to last year’s, while almost all other teams opted for less downforce.
Following the performance seen in the first five races, Aston Martin held a meeting with all the team’s top brass to decide what development plan to follow for the next season and try to salvage a championship that, at this point, has provided few rewards.
“Can we get more from the car? We think so. We believe there are areas where, looking at the last few races, we can still improve. Is it enough to win races? No. But it’s something we can still work on? Yes, it is,” explained Andy Cowell, Aston Martin’s Team Principal, after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which ended outside the points.
Will Newey’s Influence Be Felt on the AMR25?
“We’re learning to know this car and use all the new equipment we have at the factory to push even harder.” It’s no coincidence that Cowell mentioned the facilities as one of the key elements to make progress. This year, Aston Martin opened its new wind tunnel, which began operation from the Australian GP after a long period of testing.
Although Adrian Newey, who only joined last month, will not actively contribute to the development of the 2025 car, Cowell emphasized that his contribution will be crucial in improving the accuracy of all the tools Aston has invested in over recent seasons to build a world-title-winning team in the coming years.
“It’s important that Adrian understands the tools we have, their accuracy, the precision with which they predict what will happen on track. With the methods, tools, and approach used to analyze data, interpret it, and prioritize what’s best to pursue to create a faster car,” Cowell added. The issue, however, is that time is running out, and this work will likely pay off more in 2026 than in the course of this year.
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