Adrian Newey holds Mercedes W17 inspection at British GP

Aston Martin team principal and design guru Adrian Newey was spotted looking at the back of the Mercedes W17 at the British Grand Prix.

Newey’s inspection was captured by the Sky F1 cameras, prompting presenter Simon Lazenby to head over for a chat. Newey said it is interesting to look at rival solutions, as Aston Martin readies its B-spec AMR26 car.

Adrian Newey takes a look at Mercedes W17 at Silverstone

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Ahead of the British Grand Prix Sprint, Newey was roaming the Silverstone grid, armed with his trademark notebook.

He was taking a good look at the back of the Mercedes W17. That car has claimed all bar one of the grand prix wins on offer in F1 2026.

Lazenby spotted Newey, the F1 design icon, taking a gander at the Mercedes and went over.

“I’m just going to sneak up on Adrian here, because I’ve noticed he’s got his notepad out.

“What have you seen at the back of that Mercedes that you like the look of?”

“There’s lots of carbon!” Newey quipped, before adding: “I mean, it’s always interesting to look at other people’s solutions and shapes and so forth.

“And yes, of course, we all look at pictures, but I find walking around and being able to kind of see it in 3D is helpful as well.”

Aston Martin has suffered a challenging start to F1 2026 and its Honda alliance. Fernando Alonso scored the team’s only point so far with P10 in Monaco.

Aston Martin withdrew from the fierce, early F1 2026 development battle, in favour of working on a transformative upgrade package. Honda is also working on a significant engine upgrade.

“We took the decision after Melbourne that there’s no point in introducing small changes that would still leave us with no real chance of scoring points,” said Newey. “So, we’ll take a bit of pressure off ourselves, regroup, put systems in place for the future, and work on a proper upgrade.”

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The new AMR26 is currently scheduled to arrive for Hungary, the final round before the summer break.

Speaking ahead of the British GP, Aston Martin’s chief trackside officer Mike Krack told PlanetF1.com and others of the upgrades: “It’s a significant aero upgrade and weight reduction.

“Obviously you need to attack a lot of parts to achieve that, but if I would have to list all the parts, I think I would not even know all the parts that have changed. So I think we wait until we have it, and then we will declare what you have to declare, and we’ll see what we’re going to end with.”

Krack admits that Aston Martin will probably not be able to optimise the B-Spec AMR26 out of the gate in Hungary.

“It will need a bit of time,” he said. “I don’t think that we will be spot on straight away, because the new parts will also create new characteristics, and while you can do a lot in simulation, the little details that the driver needs, you need to do on the track.

“So I do not expect that we are straight away on it in FP1, and it might take us even a couple of sessions to get the maximum out of it.”

Honda is due to introduce its upgraded engine for the Dutch Grand Prix, the first round after the summer break.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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