The arrival of Adrian Newey at Aston Martin has clearly excited Fernando Alonso. The two-time world champion, who joined the Silverstone team in 2023 with a contract running until the end of 2026, hopes he made the right choice to conclude his F1 career, as he will be 45 by then and unlikely to renew his contract for another season or two.
For this reason, Fernando Alonso is increasingly hopeful that the 2026 car, which could be his last in the Circus, will already be competitive. With the regulatory changes and the impressive facilities built by Aston Martin over the years, the resources are there, and now the team also clearly has the best technical and human capital available.
However, it won’t be easy for Adrian Newey to make an immediate impact. He will officially join on March 1, 2025, two months after the first official sketch of the car is drawn. He will need to organize everything, especially considering the new Honda engine in the car, which has worked with the British genius but must present a new power unit (like all teams) along with a renewed technical department.
F1, Fernando Alonso – Honda relationship: how much has changed
Fernando Alonso must consider a couple of things, and we’re sure he’s already thought it over: the Honda he will collaborate with is very different from the one that began its hybrid journey in F1 in 2015 with McLaren, coincidentally led by Fernando (and it’s fair to say the relationship soured after just a few races). This Honda is also a distant relative of the one that started the winning cycle with Red Bull.
There has been significant turnover at Honda, with many technicians remaining at Milton Keynes after the official departure at the end of 2021, although the brand is still present. It’s unclear how this situation has been managed, but Red Bull PowerTrains has been established, where the Austrian team is producing the power unit for its cars starting in 2026, incorporating many engineers from Mercedes. In July, the outlook didn’t seem too bright, but we will see if anything positive develops in the future.
For this reason, the Honda powering Aston Martin should not be associated, in terms of continuity, with what we’ve seen in recent years. It’s a mechanism full of elements that can individually inspire dreams, but everything needs to work together to make a team that has significant financial resources successful; relying solely on enthusiasm before even starting could lead to failure.
Not just Aston Martin: many seek redemption
It’s not just Alonso and Aston Martin that are looking for a comeback, as other teams also dream of reclaiming the top of the standings with these regulatory changes. Primarily, Ferrari and Mercedes: little information is filtering out about the power unit that will propel the red cars from 2026 onward, especially since there’s a considerable technical reshuffle happening within the racing team.
Of course, others are also changing and renewing, but compared to their rivals, there is less information available, which could be an advantage in terms of pressure. Meanwhile, at Brackley, they feel very strong, a characteristic of this team whenever there’s a need to change something on the engine; we saw this in 2014 when they were effectively two years ahead of everyone.
We don’t expect a similar advantage in 2026, but they must be considered contenders for the top, at least on paper. However, one should note that not only the power unit matters for future regulations, as “active” aerodynamics will be central to car design. At McLaren, powered by Mercedes, they aim to maintain a high standard, but as pure customers (unlike Aston Martin and Honda, where the Japanese are fully focused on their green car), stumbling is more likely.
Regarding Red Bull PowerTrains, supported by Ford, we’ve pretty much covered it all. As for Audi, the question mark is as big as a house. After the grand announcement of their entry into F1 at Spa two years ago, many things have changed in Ingolstadt. This “trick” has cost the Germans far more than anticipated, leading to several changes in management.
In short, a little over a year before their debut, there’s a lot of mystery surrounding the four-ring brand. Before Mattia Binotto’s arrival, there were doubts about whether they could participate in the championship from 2026 onward. This situation seems to have settled, but given the difficulty in finding top-level drivers, Audi may not have a spectacular start.
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