Aston Martin will effectively stop developing the AMR26 after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the final planned work focused on reducing the car’s weight before the team switches its attention fully to 2027. The current version of the AMR26 will provide the technical foundation for next season’s car as Aston Martin looks to begin the performance recovery expected by the brand’s senior management.
The approach has been radical: introduce almost everything at once, then essentially stop. Aston Martin has treated the 2026 Formula 1 season as a 12-month development exercise after an extremely difficult opening half of the campaign forced the Silverstone team to rethink its original plans. Rather than continue with a conventional stream of small upgrades, Aston Martin developed a major mid-season package that effectively turned the AMR26 into a “B-spec” car and created a new starting point for 2027.
Aston Martin confirms AMR26 aerodynamic development will end
Enrico Cardile has now confirmed that the substantial package introduced during the middle of the season will be the final major aerodynamic development for the AMR26. From that point, Aston Martin’s resources will increasingly be directed towards the 2027 car, whose basic technical direction will evolve from the specification raced between Hungary and Monza.
“After Hungary, we introduced some small refinements – changes to the front wing and floor at Zandvoort. These will be the final planned aerodynamic developments for this car,” the Italian engineer said in an interview with Aston Martin’s official website.
There is only one possible exception to that plan.
“The only exception would be if, during development of the 2027 car, we discovered something that made sense to test on track this year to help us with correlation. But at the moment, nothing else is planned.”
The decision comes against the backdrop of a difficult first season with Honda power, with the partnership’s performance also raising questions over its longer-term direction. Aston Martin’s engine situation has already become a significant talking point, including the possibility that the team could reconsider a Mercedes engine return if Honda’s problems persist.
Baku will bring the final AMR26 weight-reduction work
The remaining changes planned for the AMR26 concern weight rather than aerodynamics, and Aston Martin expects that programme to be completed by the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.
“We still have to complete the weight-reduction programme. That should be finished around Baku. From Baku onwards, we will essentially run the definitive version of the car for the rest of the season.”
That will bring to an end an unusually intensive development programme built around a complete rethink of Aston Martin’s 2026 chassis concept.
“There has been an enormous effort from the whole team to introduce a completely redesigned car in the middle of the season. In terms of the scale of the intervention, it is the biggest upgrade this team has ever brought to the track. We didn’t start from a good base, but in just a few months we made a very significant step forward with the chassis.”
Why Aston Martin rejected the traditional race-by-race upgrade approach
Aston Martin could have attempted to introduce new components progressively from one Grand Prix to the next. Given the seriousness of its early-season problems, however, the team instead chose to gather data, understand the weaknesses in greater depth and design a car capable of delivering a much larger performance step.
The intention was not merely to improve the AMR26 in the short term. The redesigned car also had to create a technical platform for Aston Martin’s future chassis and aerodynamic development.
“It was a brave decision. A very brave decision. But it was the right decision. Taking this approach completely changes the way an F1 team operates. When you are constantly bringing small upgrades, you are always under time pressure. Every few weeks, you have to freeze something, release it, manufacture it and ship it. You are always in sprint mode.”
Cardile explained that moving away from that constant development cycle gave Aston Martin’s technical departments more freedom to work on concepts that required additional time.
“What we did was give people time. Time for the aerodynamicists, designers and engineers. Time to rethink concepts, to explore ideas that need more than a few weeks to mature. Some concepts have great potential, but they require patience.”
“By removing the pressure of ‘you have to deliver something in four or five weeks’, we created the space to do something more impactful. For me, it was the only way to achieve the step forward we made. I don’t think we could have done it with a traditional incremental approach.”
AMR26 race pace gives Aston Martin encouragement for 2027
The redesigned AMR26 has only made it through Q1 once, courtesy of Fernando Alonso. There has been an improvement in qualifying performance, but it has rarely been sufficient to produce a tangible step forward in starting position.
The picture has been more encouraging over a race distance. Fernando Alonso has been able to bring the green car into the points on merit, rather than relying primarily on retirements ahead as had happened in Monte Carlo.
“From what we have seen so far, the car seems particularly strong in race configuration. It is kinder on the tyres. Naturally, tyre performance also depends on how you manage them during a stint, but the direction we have taken with the car is clearly the right one.”
“This is particularly important because this car represents the starting point for 2027. From the chassis point of view, we now have a good idea of where we need to go.”
That makes the remainder of 2026 less about continuously transforming the current car and more about using it to consolidate Aston Martin’s understanding before the next major development cycle begins.
Honda also switches development focus towards its 2027 power unit
Aston Martin has therefore defined its programme clearly: complete the final weight reduction at Baku and then concentrate on 2027. Honda is preparing to follow the same direction with its power unit development.
The engine featuring the latest changes permitted under ADUO2 will be the final major specification introduced this season. Honda’s engineers in Japan are expected to turn their attention almost entirely towards the 2027 power unit shortly afterwards, with the objective of avoiding a repeat of the difficult start experienced this year.
That challenge is particularly important because Aston Martin’s recovery depends not only on the chassis but also on closing the performance deficit from its power unit.
“We have a very clear path to follow for engine development. And we know where we are right now. According to our programme, we will bring another major engine step for the first race of next year,” said Shintaro Orihara, Honda F1 trackside general manager and chief engineer.
“It is difficult to say what performance situation we will be in at the first race of next year, but we are pushing extremely hard to close the gap we have and to do so from the first race of 2027. But as I said, there will be no more major power unit upgrades this year.”
Aston Martin and Honda believe they are now heading in the right direction
Honda is currently concentrating on confirming that the countermeasures developed on the dyno also deliver the expected benefits on track.
“At the moment, we are trying to understand whether the countermeasures we have developed can work on track. We checked them on the dyno and saw positive behaviour. At that point, we brought the new components to the track.”
“We received positive feedback from the drivers and also saw positive things when checking our data. So we believe we have taken the right direction. This is a very positive matter as far as we are concerned.”
For Aston Martin, the strategy is now defined. Baku will effectively complete the AMR26’s development cycle, after which the redesigned 2026 car will serve primarily as the reference point for the project intended to move the team further up the Formula 1 order in 2027.
Honda is pursuing the same timetable on the power-unit side. With no more major engine developments planned for the remainder of 2026, the priority is to ensure that the next substantial step is ready from the opening race of 2027 rather than repeating the difficult beginning that shaped Aston Martin’s current campaign.
Leave a Reply