Aston Martin Targets 2027 Rebound After Learning From 2026 Struggles
NXTbets Pro | Published On: September 20, 2026
Aston Martin recovery
Aston Martin left its first season under Formula 1’s new regulations with a clear lesson, the team has work to do, but Pedro de la Rosa says it also has a path back up the grid. The Aston Martin ambassador said the team has “strong confidence” it can rebound next season after slipping toward the back of the field in 2026. He pointed to the scale of the learning inside the team, the way development changed the car’s pace over the year and the belief that those gains can carry into the next stage of the project. De la Rosa said Aston Martin was forced to lower its expectations after pre-season testing in Bahrain exposed major problems with the AMR26, but later development work improved the car compared with its early-season baseline. That progression gave the team something tangible to build on. He said Aston Martin has taken measures to recover and is working to come back stronger. The message from inside the camp is that the rough first year did not break the project. It sharpened it. The team saw where the new rules rewarded performance, where the car fell short and how much ground still needs to be made up. De la Rosa said that understanding matters because Aston Martin was chasing from deep in the pack. The Hungarian upgrade marked one of the clearest signs of progress, but the larger takeaway was the team’s ability to absorb the setback and keep pushing. That, he said, gives Aston Martin reason to believe the turnaround can come.
Adrian Newey influence
Adrian Newey’s presence has helped keep Aston Martin steady through the struggle, and de la Rosa said he is already shaping the next phase with the future in mind. He said Newey is working behind the scenes toward the next season while also playing a key role in keeping the group calm and united during 2026. That leadership mattered because the project started late and had to catch up from the outset. De la Rosa said Newey arrived after the process was already behind schedule, and the team’s new wind tunnel was not fully operational until after he joined. That left Aston Martin catching up from the outset. He also pointed to Honda’s power unit program, which started later than planned after Honda’s withdrawal from Formula 1 and its return to the championship. Those overlapping delays left Aston Martin catching up. De la Rosa did not frame the year as a failure of effort. He framed it as a project that began in difficult conditions and then had to learn on the fly. He said Newey’s influence helped the team stay unified as results went the wrong way, and that internal stability matters when a car is short of pace. The picture he drew was of a team that knows its timeline was compressed, knows where the weak spots came from and now has a better handle on how to move forward.
Honda and upgrades
The technical gains Aston Martin made during the season offered a sharper look at what the team can extract from the new rules, and de la Rosa said the upgrade introduced in Hungary was a useful step in that process. He said it worked as expected and helped the team understand how the regulations translate into lap time. That mattered because Aston Martin’s early struggles were deep enough to make any progress count. The Hungary package brought the team its first Q2 appearance of the season, a sign that development work was beginning to pay off after a difficult opening stretch. De la Rosa said the result came after Bahrain testing exposed major problems with the AMR26 and forced the team to reset its targets. He also said Honda’s engine improvements reduced lap times for the car, which gave Aston Martin another layer of support as it tried to claw back performance. The combined effect of chassis development, engine progress and clearer rule interpretation gave the team a more complete picture of what needs to change next. De la Rosa said the team learned a great deal over the year, and that knowledge now sits at the center of the recovery plan. The season exposed how much ground Aston Martin had to cover, but it also showed the team where the gains are possible. With the upgrade path better understood and 2027 in mind, Aston Martin enters the next phase with a clearer map than it had when the year began.
