2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[etusch]

Downshifting in a seamless transmission wasn't always a part where you needed to be that fast. It still is, but kinetic energy recovery may have made it more important. Since upshifting is the primary goal in a seamless transmission, I think the downshifting part seems like a more challenging engineering feat.

And the fact that the transmission side is still problematic means that energy recovery is still not optimal. I wonder what is the difference between the energy obtained when it is working as it should and the energy obtained in its current state?

[SSJ4]

Gearbox must be horrendous. Never seen Fernando make mistakes like that in general. Nvm in back to back races

[venkyhere]

they showed a replay of the car snapping 90 degree right in a straight line when brakes were applied, coming out of the tunnel. It was as if the left front didn't have brakes.
The AMR26 is beyond pathetic, it's nonsense. I don't know why members here are clinging to the faintest hope. The team, the car, both NON-FUNCTIONAL. They are simply travelling track to track, weekend after weekend, as expensive billboards for their sponsors. This team is better off simply not participating for the rest of 2026 and actually work on solving their fundamental problems. I am sure this thought has crossed Lawrence Stroll's mind. They are just going to be the laughing stock for the rest of the year. Even Cadillac is showing signs of improving.

[FNTC]

Alonso, yesterday:

"Monaco is not the ideal place to suffer an unexpected downshift causing rear axle lock-up, because you'll end up against the wall and the driver will look like the one at fault. But sometimes we are passengers of what happens when you downshift and the engine brakes as if you were flat out. That is something we need to make sure we have taken a step forward on since Canada, and Monaco will tell us the truth."

That looked exactly as he predicted yesterday...

[dr_cooke]

Alonso, yesterday:

"Monaco is not the ideal place to suffer an unexpected downshift causing rear axle lock-up, because you'll end up against the wall and the driver will look like the one at fault. But sometimes we are passengers of what happens when you downshift and the engine brakes as if you were flat out. That is something we need to make sure we have taken a step forward on since Canada, and Monaco will tell us the truth."

That looked exactly as he predicted yesterday...

This seems to be it. Quite frightening.

[diffuser]

they showed a replay of the car snapping 90 degree right in a straight line when brakes were applied, coming out of the tunnel. It was as if the left front didn't have brakes.
The AMR26 is beyond pathetic, it's nonsense. I don't know why members here are clinging to the faintest hope. The team, the car, both NON-FUNCTIONAL. They are simply travelling track to track, weekend after weekend, as expensive billboards for their sponsors. This team is better off simply not participating for the rest of 2026 and actually work on solving their fundamental problems. I am sure this thought has crossed Lawrence Stroll's mind. They are just going to be the laughing stock for the rest of the year. Even Cadillac is showing signs of improving.

100% of what make F1 possible is being an expensive billboard. Yeah, that thought has NEVER crossed Lawrence's mind. Let's not go to races and give up our sponsorship money. That will help.

How would they know if the "fixed" said problems? Or how would they know they don't have other problems if they don't go to races?

[TyreSlip]

Alonso, yesterday:

"Monaco is not the ideal place to suffer an unexpected downshift causing rear axle lock-up, because you'll end up against the wall and the driver will look like the one at fault. But sometimes we are passengers of what happens when you downshift and the engine brakes as if you were flat out. That is something we need to make sure we have taken a step forward on since Canada, and Monaco will tell us the truth."

That looked exactly as he predicted yesterday...

Very scary. I watched the onboard and something squeaked during the downshift. My Q2 hopes are dashed.

[SealTheRealDeal]

Aston Martin is the manufacturer and co-owner of the racing program. The team is officially named the Aston Martin THOR Team, reflecting a deep partnership where Aston Martin provides the Valkyrie hypercar (developed from their road-legal hypercar) and THOR (The Heart of Racing) operates the team.

Manufacturer Role: Aston Martin produces the Valkyrie LMH chassis and engine, which is the only Hypercar derived from a road-legal production car.
Operational Role: The Heart of Racing (THOR) manages the day-to-day racing operations, logistics, and driver lineup.
Ownership: The program is a joint effort, with Aston Martin retaining its identity as the car's builder while leveraging THOR's endurance racing expertise.

Now if it's AMR, AMR F1, AML or AM I don't know but it's one of them.

Sorry not sure where I got the Button thing.

The Valkyrie LMH is funded primarily by billionaire Gabe Newell[1] and designed and built primarily by Multimatic[2] with some technical assistance from AMR.[3] I haven't seen anything confirming AMPT's involvement. I hope they are involved simply because otherwise I have no clue what AMPT is for, and I doubt Stroll is paying Andrew Green to sit around doing nothing, but if it is involved it's only a tertiary role.

[1] the owner of Steam and THOR

[2] which also manufactures the track only Valkyrie AMR Pro that the LMH is based on

[3]which is a distinct corporate entity from AML and AMF1/Racing Point, and which is actually still operated by Prodrive, not sure if Stroll owns AMR and is simply contracting Prodrive or if Prodrive kept that part of the business when they sold the road car company to Stroll

I just read "Valkyrie AMR Pro was originally designed and developed to meet the LMH hypercar regulations and now Aston Martin Performance Technologies, situated in the newly-built AMR Technology Campus which is co-located with the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One® team’s Silverstone headquarters, has begun the task of developing a competition prototype version of Valkyrie for racing within a pre-defined aerodynamic and power performance window that gives it parity with its direct competition in WEC. It will then be homologated for the WEC Hypercar and IMSA GTP classes ahead of the 2025 season." on https://www.astonmartin.com/en-us/our-w ... 0task%20of

Good find

[Sedaxel]

Alonso, after FPs:

"It's a bit of everything. I think in terms of grip, we're not happy with the front axle. We're losing a lot of front grip in the middle of corners. It seems like we have a chronic understeer that we can't manage to resolve. I mean, right now we're recovering a lot of energy during braking. The rear axle is charging the battery massively under braking. And then you have these downshifts where you have to interact with the engine's throttle blip to get the next gear in."

"We've made a couple of setup changes. We'll make more tonight and we hope to improve the situation. But, for the moment, it's a complicated issue."

"And then, the gear shifts — both upshifts and downshifts — and the braking level when entering corners in Monaco are crucial for being precise and having confidence through the corners. At the moment, the way the car downshifts and the speed at which corners are approached are too inconsistent. It's not easy to drive. There's a lot going on this year and it seems like we're still not at that level."

[bigblue]

The above is reported here at the-race.com. I also knew the front suspension is supposed to be pretty weird, but wow, the upper rear arm goes a long, looong way back.

[HPD]

Alonso, after FPs:

"It's a bit of everything. I think in terms of grip, we're not happy with the front axle. We're losing a lot of front grip in the middle of corners. It seems like we have a chronic understeer that we can't manage to resolve. I mean, right now we're recovering a lot of energy during braking. The rear axle is charging the battery massively under braking. And then you have these downshifts where you have to interact with the engine's throttle blip to get the next gear in."

"We've made a couple of setup changes. We'll make more tonight and we hope to improve the situation. But, for the moment, it's a complicated issue."

"And then, the gear shifts — both upshifts and downshifts — and the braking level when entering corners in Monaco are crucial for being precise and having confidence through the corners. At the moment, the way the car downshifts and the speed at which corners are approached are too inconsistent. It's not easy to drive. There's a lot going on this year and it seems like we're still not at that level."

It's always Honda fault. (Sarcasm)

[etusch]

The above is reported here at the-race.com. I also knew the front suspension is supposed to be pretty weird, but wow, the upper rear arm goes a long, looong way back.

https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd ... _HiRes.jpg

Car and livery looks quite good. Maybe too much new idea those needs to be improved.

[f1316]

Never been a clearer case of the folly of looking at a car and immediately declaring it “advanced” or whatever other armchair, eyeball cfd was done when the Aston was first glimpsed. A radical packaging and a proven designer does not always a fast car make and this is not all about the Honda power unit - this car has problems everywhere.

[Bill]

Alonso, after FPs:

"It's a bit of everything. I think in terms of grip, we're not happy with the front axle. We're losing a lot of front grip in the middle of corners. It seems like we have a chronic understeer that we can't manage to resolve. I mean, right now we're recovering a lot of energy during braking. The rear axle is charging the battery massively under braking. And then you have these downshifts where you have to interact with the engine's throttle blip to get the next gear in."

"We've made a couple of setup changes. We'll make more tonight and we hope to improve the situation. But, for the moment, it's a complicated issue."

"And then, the gear shifts — both upshifts and downshifts — and the braking level when entering corners in Monaco are crucial for being precise and having confidence through the corners. At the moment, the way the car downshifts and the speed at which corners are approached are too inconsistent. It's not easy to drive. There's a lot going on this year and it seems like we're still not at that level."

It's always Honda fault. (Sarcasm)

We only hearing about downshift problems now because these is not a power track so hiding behind honda wont fly.alonso was running in midfield or a lot of laps in canada so if they fix problems car have potential

[etusch]

If you make fastest car you will be fastest