F1 has its sights set on next season, with new regulations that completely change the Grand Prix, a challenge for all teams and for Aston Martin, which aims to reach the pinnacle of motorsport. Adrian Newey is ready to build a winning car and believes that the new regulations allow him to develop the new AMR26 with a certain amount of freedom.
Newey believes that innovation will be possible
Adrian Newey, Aston Martin’s technical director, has welcomed the new regulatory framework that will come into force in 2026. Following his departure from Red Bull, the Briton has joined Lawrence Stroll‘s project with his sights set on turning Aston Martin into a competitive force under the new rules. According to him, the regulatory change, although initially intimidating, opens up a range of possibilities for technical development.
“My thoughts on the 2026 regulations are similar to those I had on the big rule change for 2022: at first I thought the regulations were so prescriptive that there wasn’t much left here (for a designer), but then you start to delve into the details and you realize that there is more flexibility for innovation and different approaches than meets the eye,” Newey said in an interview published on Aston Martin’s official website.
As was the case with the 2022 regulation change, where there was a noticeable diversity of concepts on the grid, Newey predicts a similar situation, at least in the early seasons of adaptation.
Newey predicts different cars for 2026
Adrian Newey is convinced that we will see different cars on the grid in 2026, as the regulations allow for different interpretations, and each team can take a different approach to building their cars.
“We saw this at the beginning of 2022, when the teams took very different directions. Four seasons later, they have largely converged, but that wasn’t the case at the beginning. The variety between teams is great. It’s a bit boring if the cars look identical and the only way to tell them apart is by their livery,” he said.
With more permissive regulations in areas such as active aerodynamics, weight reduction, and less dependence on ground effect, we could see a cycle start as unpredictable as the one experienced in the hybrid era in 2014.
“There is enough flexibility in the regulations, and I’m sure people will come up with different solutions. Some of them will be eliminated during the first two or three years, as the teams begin to converge,” he said.
A challenge with challenges
Despite the enthusiasm, Newey is no stranger to the challenge posed by this double regulatory change, which will affect both the chassis and the power units. The uncertainty generated by these changes could upset the competitive balance achieved in recent seasons.
“This is the first time I can remember the chassis and power unit regulations changing at the same time. It’s… interesting… and a little scary,” he acknowledged.
However, he expressed full confidence in the work Honda is doing. “Both the new aerodynamic regulations and the power unit regulations offer opportunities. I would expect to see a range of aerodynamic solutions and there could be variation in power unit performance across the grid to start with,” he said.
Finally, he was optimistic about Honda’s role in this new era: “I have a lot of confidence in Honda and a lot of respect for them, having worked with them before. They took a year out of F1 and, to some extent, they are playing catch-up, but they are a great group of engineers and a very engineering-oriented company.”