Former world champion Damon Hill said Adrian Newey’s move to Aston Martin could spark a Brawn GP–style upset when F1’s new 2026 regulations take effect at the season opener in Melbourne in March. Newey joined Aston Martin on March 1, 2025 and has since been involved in the team’s 2026 project; Hill called the scenario plausible, not certain.

He contrasted that potential with Aston Martin’s recent slide: the team finished seventh in the 2025 Constructors’ standings and had not won since the 2023 São Paulo Grand Prix. Hill cited Jenson Button’s 2009 title with Brawn GP as a precedent for how a rules reset can reorder the pecking order.

Newey produced the AMR26 as his first car for Aston Martin and brings a record that includes more than 200 race wins and a combined 26 drivers’ and constructors’ championships. At the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix Newey publicly identified weaknesses in the team’s driver-in-the-loop simulator; afterward Aston Martin hired Giles Wood as simulation and vehicle modeling director and engaged former Ferrari simulation lead Marco Fainello as a consultant to strengthen that capability.

Separately, Honda revealed its 2026 power unit in Tokyo and has signaled a full works return, although Honda president Koji Watanabe acknowledged development problems, saying “not everything is going well.”

Reporters and Hill framed the comparison as a realistic possibility rather than a prediction: Newey’s expertise, the simulation hires and the wholesale technical reset create pathways for rapid improvement, but actual competitiveness will be proven on track. With the F1 rule change coming into force in March and Honda’s package still carrying uncertainty, any Aston Martin resurgence remains contingent on preseason and race-day performance rather than confirmed by the off-season narrative.

Sources