Aston Martin faces three race weekends that will be decisive for the team, as they bring improvements that will determine how the rest of the season will unfold for Fernando Alonso‘s team, which is looking to climb out of the bottom of the grid.
Aston Martin forced to step up
The truth is that Aston Martin’s season is proving to be more than disappointing. The AMR25 is battling with the Sauber team’s car to avoid being the worst car on the grid, something unthinkable at the start of the campaign, when it was expected to be fighting for the top 10 and there were hopes that the team could fight for the top spots in the standings. But the track has shown what has gradually become clear, that Aston Martin has not worked on this year’s car and that its only goal is 2026.
But it is true that not even the team itself expected such poor performance, which has led the team to seek a reaction, above all to avoid the embarrassment of being so far behind. But the strategy is not to allocate resources to 2025 either. The idea is to test the AMR26 parts that can be introduced in accordance with the regulations. These new parts, manufactured in Aston Martin’s new wind tunnel, are expected to boost the car to consolidate its position in the midfield, but it looks like a difficult task.
New updates for Imola
Aston Martin already has new updates ready for the ARM25 between now and the end of the season. These new updates include a new floor, a new floor edge – for ground effect –, and a new diffuser. With these three elements, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are expected to be higher up the standings than they are at the moment.
However, there are doubts at Aston Martin about the implementation of the improvements. Some team members see it as risky to introduce all the improvements at the same time, as there would be a lot of data to learn and there would be a risk of not setting up the car in the most optimal way to get the best performance. They will have to decide in the coming days whether to save any of these updates for the Monaco F1 Grand Prix next week.
New updates for Barcelona
The next update for the AMR25 is scheduled for the Barcelona Grand Prix, where an FIA change to the wings will come into effect. This change should have been introduced at the start of the season but was delayed until this date. For this reason, Aston Martin will install a new front wing, which will bring the development planned for this period to an end.
The team has not disclosed whether this will be Aston Martin’s last update of the season, but according to Aston Martin boss Andy Cowell, who acknowledged that they would be testing things from the AMR26 on this year’s car, it is likely that new elements will be incorporated later on to check their reliability, which could further improve the car.
This is a decisive week for Aston Martin and a decisive week for Fernando Alonso, who this weekend could begin to see more clearly whether what he has experienced so far will be the norm for the season or whether, on the contrary, the team is capable of taking a step forward to finish the season on a better note than it has so far. It would be a breath of fresh air for a team that aspires to fight with the best from next season onwards.