Is Adrian Newey hiding true Aston Martin AMR26 until Melbourne?
Aston Martin is on the back foot with the AMR26
Juan Pablo Montoya believes Adrian Newey is holding something back – and that Aston Martin’s true AMR26 will not be revealed until Melbourne.
Aston Martin has endured a sobering start to pre-season testing thus far, though Montoya is predicting that the AMR26 which we have seen in Barcelona and Bahrain is not the package which will be sent into battle at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Montoya believes Aston Martin is holding back its full 2026 package until Australia
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There is a huge amount of buzz around Aston Martin going into F1 2026. The Aston Martin AMR26 is the team’s first F1 car designed under Newey, and the first to be powered by Honda as part of a new works engine partnership.
However, Aston Martin has work to do ahead of the first race.
In Bahrain, Lance Stroll was calling for another four seconds of performance from the AMR26, while Fernando Alonso admitted that the team is on the back foot.
But, does Newey have a trick up his sleeve for the first race in Melbourne? Montoya, who worked with Newey at McLaren, reckons so.
“Apart from the Aston, you look at every car, they all look the same,” claimed Montoya via Vision4Sport.
“So, it means either nobody figured it out or everybody’s sandbagging because they have figured something out.
“The aero packages are going to change a lot from now into Melbourne and knowing Adrian Newey, he is going to wait in Melbourne to run the package. Adrian is not going to run anything in the test.”
Montoya added: “Adrian Newey is a pessimist! So, it’s really hard to judge. And I worked with Adrian. Adrian will say things are okay, but he’s never happy.
“When he built the Red Bull that won every race a couple of years ago, he didn’t think they had such a great car. And he won 90 per cent of the races.
“Reading Adrian is very difficult because Adrian is never happy and I think that’s one of the key reasons why Adrian is so good, because he’s never satisfied with what he has.”
Aston Martin is one of just two teams, alongside Audi, to have exclusive use of its own engine supply. In Aston Martin’s case, it is the Honda engine, while Audi has entered the sport with its own creation.
“I think there’s a bigger question; where Honda is being a single car team in terms of reliability. Honda has one car and Audi has one car,” said Montoya.
“In three days, Audi did 600 kilometres, Mercedes did 5,000 km. Ferrari did 4,800 km. As long as Aston doesn’t have to turn the engine down, then they won’t have any issues.
“The two big question marks for me revolve around, not so much on power, but more on reliability.”
More on Aston Martin from PlanetF1.com
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Winners and losers from the first Bahrain test
Adrian Newey could unleash new-look AMR26, but…
If there is a step forward coming for Melbourne with the AMR26 aero package, it depends whether the Honda engine can keep up.
Honda, by its own admission, is “playing catch-up” at the moment with its testing programme, having reversed its decision to leave Formula 1, and sign up for the new ruleset, in order to join forces with Aston Martin.
It is very much possible that Newey will have significant updates ready for the AMR26 come Melbourne. As Montoya suggests, most teams on the grid will have something coming.
But, the indications are that Aston Martin truly does have a long road ahead.
PlanetF1.com’s Mat Coch and Thomas Maher are on the ground at Bahrain testing. The understanding is that Aston Martin is some way adrift at the back of the pack.
It will take a huge dose of Newey magic to turn that around in a matter of weeks, magic perhaps beyond what even the great Adrian Newey is capable of conjuring.
Melbourne could set the scene for an arrival of a new-look AMR26, and one which takes a large bite out of the deficit which Stroll has referenced. But, this new Aston Martin, Newey and Honda era needs more time to gel and bear fruit.
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