Time is passing, Formula 1 has reached the halfway point of the 2025 season, and 2026 is fast approaching, the year in which the pinnacle of motorsport enters a new era, one that is cleaner, more efficient, and brings with it new cars that are smaller, lighter, and more complicated to drive. Jak Crawford, a young driver for Aston Martin, is one of those responsible for testing the car in the simulator, and he has revealed some secrets for the upcoming season.
Jak Crawford, at the wheel of the AMR26
Jak Crawford, young driver for Aston Martin Aramco, has been in charge of testing the AMR26 in the simulator that the team has at its factory in Silverstone. His tasks have included testing the chassis and power unit, as well as helping to adapt to the new regulations, such as active aerodynamics, which replaces the current DRS. These are only tests, and there is still a lot to do before definitive conclusions can be drawn about the AMR26, but some aspects of how the new car behaves and the progress being made thanks to the wind tunnel have been revealed.
“It’s been great to get familiar with the 2026 models in the simulator and, as expected, it’s a bit different from the current generation of cars, with new elements such as active aerodynamics that you have to get used to. It’s not entirely representative of how the car will feel in the first race in Australia next year, but it gives us a good idea.”
The young driver comments that “I’ve been working on the 2026 car in the simulator and there’s been a lot of evolution, both in the power unit and the chassis.” “It’s been fascinating to see the progress we’re making based on the wind tunnel data and the work with Honda.” He acknowledges that “I’ve never helped develop a power unit before, and I’ve never experienced a rule change of this magnitude in Formula 1 as a driver, so to be able to see things that others aren’t seeing and be part of the project is really exciting. It’s a privilege.”
The wind tunnel is up and running
It has been one of Aston Martin’s major investments in recent years, the construction of a new wind tunnel, its own, since until March, the team had been renting the Mercedes team’s tunnel, which is more outdated and posed a problem for the team when it came to testing updates, as everything had to be transferred to its rival’s factory, something that no longer happens now that it is installed at its new headquarters. Its operation is not easy, especially in the beginning, as it must be calibrated with real track data for proper tuning, but it seems that race after race, they are managing to adjust the parameters, which allows them to optimize the data.
More difficult to calibrate than the wind tunnel is the simulator, and Adrian Newey was very concerned that its setup would take a long time, “two years,” he said, but it seems that little by little they are also managing to get this essential device in the current era of motor racing to work properly.
The F1 race continues, not only on the track, but also in the factories, and Aston Martin is pursuing its goal, one of the most ambitious, to make the leap to fight for the world title. 2026 is getting closer, and we are getting closer to finding out how the teams will fare at the start of a new era in Formula 1.