Aston Martin ‘in a much better place’ – Alonso

Aston Martin launches their new car “in a much better place” than they did in 2024, according to Fernando Alonso, who claims the team opened the new season “in a much better place.”

In an effort to improve their performance, new team principal and chief executive officer Andy Cowell declared that the car’s aerodynamic package is “closely brand new.”

Aston Martin finished fifth for the second consecutive year last year, and the team returned in 2023 and 2024 because their developments failed to deliver the required performance.

However, with the arrival of design master Adrian Newey on March 3 as part of a significant leadership change, hopes are high for a better season as a brand-new wind tunnel and simulator are introduced at a new factory finished last year.

“We think we will catch up pretty soon”, said Alonso.

The team worked with the new simulator this winter, according to the veteran Spanish two-time world champion, to better understand why developments haven’t been as expected over the past two years.

“We did learn a lot last year, the second part of the season]there were] a lot of experiments going on in the way of learning more things in the 2025 car”, Alonso said.

We have spent a lot of time updating the simulator to make it work a little bit more precisely than it has in the past few seasons.

On Sunday, images of the new Aston Martin were revealed. The car will take to the track in Bahrain for a brief shakedown on Monday before F1’s official, three-day pre-season test starts on Wednesday. The Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 14 and 16 kicks off the season.

Before making a commitment to the car’s first specifications, Cowell claimed that Aston Martin had put their aerodynamic design “more important than ever” before.

He claimed that this had “performed the aero development team to spend a number of more weeks in the wind tunnel,” and that we are eager to see how the on-track results and measurements performed on campus compare to one another.

Cowell, the former Mercedes engine manager, claimed the team’s shortcomings from last season and 2023 were a result of the link between their development work in the virtual world and the track, which were correlated with Cowell’s appointment as team principal in a restructure in October.

” We have a reasonable understanding on last year’s car, “he said”. We’ve also been working on over the winter to build a car that is more predictable throughout the race and stable through the corners. We think that will help us excel in terms of race performance.

Cowell argued that it was crucial for the team to assess their progress this year to determine whether they had recognized their shortcomings.

He said, “The car we produce in Melbourne and the upgrades we produce the year will show whether we’ve been able to piece everything together.”

It’s crucial to ensure that our toolset are cohesive and that we have confidence in those tools before we compete in 2026.

With new engines and new aerodynamics regulations being introduced simultaneously, F1 will probably implement its biggest set of rule changes ever next year.

Aston Martin will switch from using customer-built Mercedes engines this year to joining Honda’s factory team for the following year.

They anticipate that Newey’s appointment as managing technical partner will allow the team to advance significantly in the grid by 2026.

Alonso will be 45 when he leaves his contract at the end of 2026. For the third consecutive season this year, he and Lawrence Stroll, the son of billionaire team owner, partner.

” Fernando has always been a phenomenal competitor, hasn’t he? “Cowell said”. And his work rate is amazing. His contribution in terms of, you know, performance drive is amazing.

“We’re lucky that we’ve got both Fernando and Lance on long-term contracts. And that’s not a problem at the moment. Our task is to create a fast racing vehicle that both of them will do well in.

” Age is a number. Franco is a fantastic player right now, and he’s very welcome on our team.

“Fernando’s experiences and feedback are amazing. His feedback from the simulator, exceptionally good feedback in every session, amazing. And also his prioritisation.