Author Archives: PressBox

Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer said the roots of the team’s Formula 1 problems were planted about five years ago, when Lawrence Stroll’s operation pushed for quick success without enough stability. Szafnauer said the constant turnover of personnel left the team short on continuity, and he pointed to Mercedes under Toto Wolff, Red Bull’s title-winning run and Ferrari under Ross Brawn as examples of how the strongest teams were built on stable leadership and staff.

Aston Martin’s rebuild has yet to deliver on track in 2026. The team started the season badly and sits 10th in the constructors’ standings with one point, scored by Fernando Alonso in Monaco. A major upgrade package introduced at the Hungarian Grand Prix brought some progress, with Alonso taking the team through the first part of qualifying there for the first time this season and the lighter, higher-downforce car reportedly cutting lap times by about two seconds. Even so, the team still trails Williams by 10 points and remains well below expectations.

Aston Martin has made major investments in its future, including a new factory or campus, a new wind tunnel, a Honda power unit partnership and the signing of Adrian Newey. The team also spent heavily at its Silverstone base before Formula 1’s cost cap arrived in 2021, but has not turned that spending into immediate success. Newey did not officially start until March 2, the wind tunnel was not ready until mid-April and Honda’s engine program was also behind schedule, while early-season upgrades were described as uncompetitive and unreliable. Aston Martin overhauled its processes later in the year, Newey has delayed AMR26 updates so they can be developed properly, and the first Honda engine upgrade is due at the Dutch Grand Prix, with a full Newey-led design not expected until 2027.

The FIA said it could not fix Formula 1’s 2026 engine regulations sooner because the sport’s governance structure required approval from Formula One Management and at least four of the five power-unit manufacturers, votes that never came. FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis said the governing body had identified problems as early as 2022 from simulator data and had tried for the previous two years to make adjustments, but those efforts failed under the rules in place. He said the FIA could not act unilaterally and could not secure the supermajority needed to revise the regulations before the season.

Tombazis said the FIA expected complaints about the 2026 package, including the 50/50 power split, energy management, superclipping and algorithm-driven elements. Drivers including Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri criticized those features during the season, and the FIA later introduced emergency energy-management tweaks from the Miami Grand Prix to reduce extreme superclipping. Formula 1 has already agreed to shift the power split gradually toward a 60-40 balance by 2028, a change Tombazis said ideally should have arrived years earlier.

Tombazis said the criticism was “realistically only to be expected,” and added that the first half of the season had still produced “pretty exciting” racing. He said Mercedes had taken most of the wins but there had been little processional running. Looking further ahead, he said another engine overhaul is expected at the start of the next decade, with a return to V8 engines under discussion, and he said future regulations could not be “held hostage by manufacturers.”

Ferrari plans to keep pushing its aggressive 2026 development program under Fred Vasseur, who said the team’s top priority for the rest of the season is maintaining its current pace of upgrades and continuing to find gains from the power unit. He described Ferrari’s year as having two phases, with Mercedes ahead before the Spanish Grand Prix and Ferrari responding strongly in the races that followed.

Ferrari’s steady flow of updates has helped deliver wins in Barcelona and Silverstone, and the team entered the summer break second in the constructors’ championship with two victories. Vasseur said Ferrari must keep bringing parts almost every race as it works through the remaining 10 to 12 races, and Charles Leclerc also urged the team to stay aggressive as McLaren closes the gap. Leclerc said there were still 12 races left.

Vasseur said Ferrari still needs to improve execution, chassis development and engine performance, and he expects a second ADUO power-unit upgrade later in the season. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has questioned how Ferrari is staying within the cost cap while continuing its upgrade push.

Audi will not introduce another major Formula 1 power-unit update before the end of the 2026 season, with racing director Allan McNish saying the next significant engine step is planned for 2027 because the team has to manage spending under Formula 1’s budget-cap rules. McNish said the choice reflects budget and resource trade-offs, and that Audi wants to preserve room for future development rather than spend everything at once. The team is also balancing chassis and power-unit work across multiple seasons, and reports said Audi is the first team this season to halt engine updates ahead of the 2027 regulation change.

Audi used one of its two additional development and upgrade opportunities on a small update introduced in Barcelona, where the focus was drivability rather than outright performance. Audi said the changes improved throttle response, torque delivery, shift quality and overall drivability. Nico Hulkenberg said the remaining issues are subtle but still affect throttle response and shifting quality.

The Barcelona update has already helped Audi on track, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Hulkenberg scoring points in three straight races. Those results moved Audi ahead of Williams into eighth place in the constructors’ standings, where it has 12 points. Audi still expects further gains this season, but bigger hardware changes have been held back for 2027 while the team shifts attention toward chassis and aerodynamic development for the R26 and next year’s power-unit regulation changes.