Author Archives: PressBox

Jenson Button said he was “jealous” that Aston Martin drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll get to drive cars shaped by Adrian Newey and admitted he would love to try a Newey-designed car himself. Writing on the Aston Martin website in his “Jenson’s Journal,” the 2009 world champion — who retired at the end of 2025 and joined Aston Martin as a multi-year ambassador in February after moving his ambassador role from Williams — described watching Newey operate up close as “fascinating” and called him “old school” for sketching ideas in a notebook. Button said he even tried to sneak a peek at Newey’s notebook and that he would “jump at the chance” to do a demonstration run in a Newey car, though he joked that a full 24-race season in one would be too much.

Aston Martin, with Newey serving as its managing technical partner and team principal for 2026, endured a sluggish start under the new regulations. Media reports said the team had not yet scored a race win and had failed to record a classified finish early in the season, with Honda power-unit problems, including severe vibrations in Australia that limited running and disrupted qualifying, among the issues.

Button warned the new technical era has altered power-unit behavior, with hybrid deployment and brake-pressure interaction now influencing available power and forcing drivers to manage systems differently. Given Newey’s long record of championship-winning designs, Button and others have framed his arrival as a potential technical boost for the Silverstone-based squad.

Mario Andretti, a Cadillac board member, told the Drive to Wynn podcast he hopes the Silverstone-based, Ferrari-powered squad will be “challenging the Top 10 by the end of the 2026 Formula 1 season,” and he said ambitious goals are needed to progress toward race wins.

Two races into Cadillac’s debut F1 campaign the team sits at the back of the grid but has shown early signs of improvement. Valtteri Bottas finished 13th in Shanghai — the team’s best result to that point — and both cars completed the Chinese Grand Prix, marking Cadillac’s first double finish. Reports differ on Sergio Pérez’s exact placing in China: some outlets listed him 14th while others listed 15th. Bottas called the result “decent and a good starting point.”

The opening rounds have underlined the scale of the challenge. Drivers are still adapting — Andretti described Bottas and Pérez as “a bit rusty” after time away from full-time seats — and the team has faced technical shortcomings, including a lack of outright pace, perceived downforce and rear-stability issues, trouble extracting consistent performance from the Ferrari power unit and difficulties managing battery charge. Cadillac had not yet recorded a trouble-free weekend, and Bottas said the squad is, for now, primarily able to compete with Aston Martin. Qualifying deficits have narrowed from roughly four seconds early on to about two seconds: Bottas was 2.261s off Charles Leclerc’s Q1 benchmark in Shanghai, while Pérez had been about 3.1s adrift in Melbourne qualifying.

Team leaders stress an aggressive development programme. Parts are due in Japan and a larger upgrade package is planned after the spring break as engineers work “flat out” to convert improving reliability into stronger on-track performance. Andretti tempered expectations with realism about the scale of the task but said the season’s unpredictability and the strength of the Ferrari power unit could create opportunities for rapid gains.

Racing Bulls unveiled a Japan-inspired one-off livery as a promotional and cultural activation ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. The team said the design was explicitly inspired by Red Bull’s Spring Edition “cherry sakura” can and the new flavor from the energy drink backer, and intended the visual treatment as a marketing push rather than a technical change. Coverage variously described the car as crimson- or cherry-colored, while other reports noted it reworks Racing Bulls’ usual blue into a white, red and silver palette—a difference reflected in the team’s social posts and event imagery. Fans reacted positively on social platforms, many joking that driver Liam Lawson was “winning the livery championship.”

The livery was revealed at the Red Bull Tokyo Drift event in Tokyo, where drivers Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad attended and Racing Bulls presented the design alongside a drift demonstration by Mad Mike (Mike Whiddett). The motif was created with Japanese calligrapher Bisen Aoyagi, whose shodo brush strokes and calligraphic treatment wrap both the car and a matching team kit; Aoyagi is also slated to produce special artwork for the team during the Suzuka weekend.

CEO Peter Bayer framed the Tokyo unveiling as a strategic effort to deepen the team’s connection with younger fans and the host nation. After the Tokyo showcase, the car was scheduled to visit landmarks including Meguro River, Tokyo Tower and Shibuya before making its track debut at Suzuka. Racing Bulls — Red Bull’s second Formula 1 team — presented the one-off look as a cultural collaboration and product-promotion tied to a high-profile race weekend, part of a wider trend of circuit-specific liveries in F1; coverage noted similar gestures in recent seasons, including a Japan-themed Red Bull livery last year to honor Honda and a bespoke Haas design linked to its partnership with Toyota, underlining that such treatments function as marketing and local cultural activations rather than competitive developments.