Damon Hill backs Adrian Newey vision despite Aston Martin Honda struggles

Damon Hill debated whether Adrian Newey, Aston Martin and Honda will turn into a “supernova”, or a “black hole” of destruction.

Someone who pushes Formula 1 design to the extreme, Hill pondered whether a stage could be reached where Newey brings about “catastrophe”, in what has been an underwhelming start to F1 2026 for Aston Martin and Honda, But, Hill decided that he is backing Newey to come good.

Damon Hill backs Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

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There was a huge buzz around Aston Martin going into F1 2026. The AMR26 challenger was the team’s first designed by the legendary Adrian Newey, and powered by the Honda engine.

Initial teething issues were expected, but not to the extent that has transpired.

Honda believes that it has got a handle on the battery vibration issues which compromised reliability in the early rounds, but in Japan, Aston Martin was comfortably the slowest car over one lap.

Fernando Alonso got the sole remaining AMR26 to the chequered flag at Suzuka – that Aston Martin-Honda’s first grand prix finish – albeit in 18th.

“If you said to Adrian, ‘We’d be safe if we stayed within that circle’, he’d go, ‘Well, what happens when you go outside the circle’,” said Hill on The Undercut podcast.

Hill worked with Newey during their time together at Williams. Hill therefore has first-hand experience of seeing Newey, one of Formula 1’s most respected and innovative car designers, operate.

Newey was quick to defend the AMR26 chassis amid Aston Martin’s poor start to F1 2026. He insisted that it was the “fifth-best” out there.

Yet, Mike Krack, Aston Martin’s chief trackside officer, later went on to dismiss the vibration issues as a performance detractor, labelling it more a reliability problem.

“He’ll keep pushing in that direction,” Hill theorised on Newey, “and then something will come of it.

“Either it will never work – which is unlikely, because they nearly always do – but it will take some time.”

The potential pitfall, Hill warns, is how long Aston Martin’s personnel would retain faith in Newey’s “promised land” without results.

Could Newey’s “competitiveness” lead Aston Martin instead to “catastrophe”, Hill pondered.

“How long is this going to last before they get some sort of turnaround,” said Hill on the Aston Martin and Honda difficulties. “I mean, barely doing better than a team that’s never done it before.

“Is there a point at which Adrian will bring about catastrophe, because he’s pushing it to an extent his competitiveness will get the better of him.

“I think Adrian is someone who will have a vision of perfection, his idea of perfection, and will want to bring everyone on board with it, and try and insist that they go.

“And a bit like Moses, everyone’s going, ‘Well, where is this promised land, and we’re not sure we’re going to get there, and we can’t maybe see the same land of milk and honey that you do’.

“There’ll be a point at which he has to just say, ‘Just trust me, we’ll get there’. And then how long have you got before they they go, ‘Maybe he’s lost his mind [laughs]’.”

But, Hill settled on backing Newey, Aston Martin and Honda to be the “supernova”, rather than a “black hole”.

He believes that this alliance will come good, and “clear evidence” will emerge in F1 2026 that Newey was always on the “right track”.

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“We have to watch whether Adrian can deliver, or whether there is just too much to do with this Honda thing,” Hill continued.

“I mean, I have faith that he’ll do it. I get the sense with him, he knows that this will resolve itself.

“And when you look back at the start of the season, from the end of the season, there’ll be clear evidence that he’s been on the right track all along.”

Aston Martin sits bottom of the early F1 2026 Constructors’ standings. F1 newcomers Cadillac are the only other team yet to score a point.

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