Aston Martin AMR26 Debuts in Barcelona After Delays

Aston Martin’s 2026 F1 car, the AMR26, made its first track appearance at the Barcelona pre-season shakedown on Thursday. The team flew the chassis into Girona the night before and mechanics assembled it overnight at the Barcelona circuit, with the car rolling out late on Thursday afternoon. Lance Stroll completed the final hour of running; Fernando Alonso was scheduled to run the following day as the team began collecting early data. Build delays forced Aston Martin to miss at least one of the three permitted test days, compressing its programme and leaving reduced on-track time.

Dressed in an all-black livery carrying only an Aston Martin nose logo, the AMR26 displayed an aggressive undercut sidepod, an unconventional engine-cover solution and a large gap beneath the airbox — the clearest view yet of Adrian Newey’s aerodynamic direction for the team. It is the first Aston Martin produced under Newey’s technical leadership after Andy Cowell stepped down; Newey now combines the roles of managing technical partner and team principal. The rollout provided a first close look at his package and styling despite the compressed schedule.

Aston Martin will use Honda works power units for 2026 and will operate from new facilities at Silverstone, so the rollout also served as an initial check on packaging and power-unit integration. Owner Lawrence Stroll’s championship ambitions framed the off-season changes as the team aims to improve on a seventh-place finish in 2025. Honda cautioned the power-unit switch may not deliver an easy start, and the late build plus the lost test day curtailed early development and reliability assessments, leaving engineers with limited time to evaluate the AMR26 ahead of fuller pre-season running and the season-opening events.