2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[bigblue]

Sorry long time lurker, just as an aside, did Alonso try break the car at the end of Spa race or was he celebrating the end of that spec, burnouts burnouts burnouts

Lol he always does that when he's frustrated.. during practice, quali on worn out tyres towards the session end.

I missed the race, so I missed this. Whilst a bit understandable, is it wise? Doesn't it put a lot of stress on the drivetrain? The gearbox is probably due for the bin, but not sure about the gearbox internals. I'm sure Honda will be wincing, given that the PU is not super-reliable at the moment, and needs to do another race, perhaps some bits of it may even need to carry on for the normal duration. Or are burnouts no more harmful than the normal stresses that need to be endured?

[CHT]

Yeah the car is now almost 6 months old and has been developed with a delay of around 3-4 months compared to the rivals. It performed better than i expected to be honest. It's quite crazy they are within the 107% rule.

There must be very fundamental structural issues with the car that is not worth fixing or developing.
Next race you will see the rebirth of what is to come for 2027

Newey said there are no structural changes except the nose. Just loss of weight and substantially revised aerodynamics surfaces.
Newey called it a 'big aerodynamic package'.
SLIGHTLY modify rear suspension.

New engine, new gearbox, new rear suspension mounting, possible new sidepod (due to new engine ERS layout), new nose. Lots of new parts.

[F1RAM]

There must be very fundamental structural issues with the car that is not worth fixing or developing.
Next race you will see the rebirth of what is to come for 2027

Newey said there are no structural changes except the nose. Just loss of weight and substantially revised aerodynamics surfaces.
Newey called it a 'big aerodynamic package'.
SLIGHTLY modify rear suspension.

New engine, new gearbox, new rear suspension mounting, possible new sidepod (due to new engine ERS layout), new nose. Lots of new parts.

No new gearbox... just a lighter one. Don't know about the new mounting for the rear suspension as Newey said only small revisions.
Probably the engine cover part will come together with the engine at Zandvoort.

[diffuser]

There must be very fundamental structural issues with the car that is not worth fixing or developing.
Next race you will see the rebirth of what is to come for 2027

Newey said there are no structural changes except the nose. Just loss of weight and substantially revised aerodynamics surfaces.
Newey called it a 'big aerodynamic package'.
SLIGHTLY modify rear suspension.

New engine, new gearbox, new rear suspension mounting, possible new sidepod (due to new engine ERS layout), new nose. Lots of new parts.

New Engine isn't coming till Netherlands.
Newey said the gearbox and chassis structure isn't changing, didn't mention the cassette inside.
He specifically point out slight change in rear suspension mounting.
Sidepod change is possible cause he did says the aerodynamic surfaces are changing but the chassis isn't not changing.

[diffuser]

How does it work tho?? If they are like 40-50hp i.e, within 10pct down on ICE power, how much are they down with the battery n recovery?

Let's say it takes 500 HP to get an F1 car to 300 km/h. Car A has an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) with 500 HP, while Car B's ICE only has 450 HP.
​Assume there are two straights with no opportunities to recharge between them. The first straight is just long enough to reach 300 km/h. The second straight is much longer—so long, in fact, that it exceeds the battery deployment capacity of both cars.
​On the first straight, Car B deploys 37.3 kW (50 HP) for 3 seconds to match Car A's baseline engine power. This consumes exactly 0.1119 MJ, which does not sound like much.
​On the second, longer straight, both cars go for maximum strategic deployment to punch through the air:
​

• Car B has 8.3881 MJ left in its energy pool. It uses absolute full deployment (the maximum regulated 350 kW / ~469 HP), which it can sustain for 23.97 seconds. This brings its total output during this time to 919 HP (450 HP ICE + 469 HP MGU-K).

​

• Car A wants to match Car B's blistering 919 HP total output. Because its engine is already stronger, it only needs to pull 419 HP (~312.5 kW) from its MGU-K. Because it is drawing less power from its completely full 8.5 MJ pool, its battery deployment stretches out to last for 27.20 seconds.

​Consequently, after 23.97 seconds, Car B completely runs out of battery, and its power output drops instantly to just its 450 HP ICE. Meanwhile, Car A will continue flying down the straight with its full 919 HP combo for another 3.23 seconds.
​With a massive 919 HP, the cars could theoretically achieve a top speed of 366.8 km/h (about 227.9 mph). Because of the cubic law of aerodynamic drag, nearly doubling the horsepower from 500 HP to over 900 HP (an 84% increase in power) only yields about a 22.3% increase in top speed.
​In the real world of F1, that extra electrical power is mostly used to get the car up to that 360+ km/h mark incredibly fast down the straight, rather than just trickling upward slowly. This is precisely why Car A would completely overpower Car B at the end of a long straight once Car B's battery goes dead!

Nice explanation... so the main problem of Honda is the ICE. How good is the battery part of Honda then? There were few rumours early in the season that the engine struggles to even harvest 250kw of energy.

Just note this is a simplistic view of things... In Formula 1, they have clipping and superclipping refer to how a car uses its electrical energy from the hybrid power unit, especially on long straights.

Clipping: The point on a straight where the MGU-K stops deploying electrical power because the available electrical energy or deployment limit has been reached. From that point until braking, the car accelerates using only the internal combustion engine, so its acceleration decreases relative to a car that is still receiving ERS assistance.

• This is what Car A did. It deployed less than max energy but still ran out of power before the end of the straight.

Superclipping: An informal term for more aggressive clipping, where the team deliberately deploys electrical energy very aggressively early in the straight, causing the ERS boost to end much earlier than usual. Depending on the team's energy management strategy, this may be accompanied by prioritizing battery recharge later on, but that behavior is not part of a universally accepted definition of the term.

• This is what Car B did.

• This can also refer to a scenario where a team deploys ERS boost for the first few seconds of a corner before switching to battery recharge while the driver remains on full throttle. The ICE continues to match throttle demand with the ICE through the corner, with the surplus engine power being used to drive the MGU-K and recharge the battery. In this scenario the ICE with more power will be able to send more energy to the battery in the same amount of time

Thanks, I think those problems were largely related to the vibrations. The concern is the drivability issues. I think alot of the "gearbox sync issues" are really with the PU. When you shift gears, a micros second pause request is sent to the PU to allow the gearbox to switch gears. In 2025 ICEs didn't do superclipping (where they're powering the wheels and performing energy recovered with the MGU-K at the same time). There is the AI involvement in calculating when to deploy energy. The complexity makes the whole complying with the "micros second pause request" very complicated.

[Waz]

I am a little surprised that they don't introduce everything all at once. Unless they do it this way as a measure of the chassis upgrades without more power?

I guess that would provide a definitive answer on what the chassis and aero upgrade is worth, and, cynically, show the real extent of the engine deficit.

[FNTC]

The fact that Alonso has said he will decide what to do for 2027 during the summer break, and they can get the B-spec chassis/aero ready before that, even if Honda can't get the engine ready until after the break, might be a factor, in addition to seeing what the chassis can do with the old engine before getting the new PU too.

[diffuser]

I am a little surprised that they don't introduce everything all at once. Unless they do it this way as a measure of the chassis upgrades without more power?

I guess that would provide a definitive answer on what the chassis and aero upgrade is worth, and, cynically, show the real extent of the engine deficit.

Honda was quoted about needing to get enough test cycles in. Bringing the new ICE to the Netherlands allows the ICE to run an extra 3-4 weeks on the test beds, this is what Honda were after. Add to that Hungry isn't a power track, the extra power doesn't really help you, made it a win win scenario.

[avada]

Newey said there are no structural changes except the nose. Just loss of weight and substantially revised aerodynamics surfaces.
Newey called it a 'big aerodynamic package'.
SLIGHTLY modify rear suspension.

New engine, new gearbox, new rear suspension mounting, possible new sidepod (due to new engine ERS layout), new nose. Lots of new parts.

New Engine isn't coming till Netherlands.
Newey said the gearbox and chassis structure isn't changing, didn't mention the cassette inside.
He specifically point out slight change in rear suspension mounting.
Sidepod change is possible cause he did says the aerodynamic surfaces are changing but the chassis isn't not changing.

So what counts as chassis? The monocoque the driver sits in, with the fuel and battery? The nose is separate from it, behind it there's the PU, to which the gearbox and everything else is mounted?

So what does it matter then? Everything of performance relevance is separate. Including the floor. But also mirror, winglets, sidepods. It's just a tub for the driver to sit in a hold a couple of parts

[diffuser]

New engine, new gearbox, new rear suspension mounting, possible new sidepod (due to new engine ERS layout), new nose. Lots of new parts.

New Engine isn't coming till Netherlands.
Newey said the gearbox and chassis structure isn't changing, didn't mention the cassette inside.
He specifically point out slight change in rear suspension mounting.
Sidepod change is possible cause he did says the aerodynamic surfaces are changing but the chassis isn't not changing.

So what counts as chassis? The monocoque the driver sits in, with the fuel and battery? The nose is separate from it, behind it there's the PU, to which the gearbox and everything else is mounted?

So what does it matter then? Everything of performance relevance is separate. Including the floor. But also mirror, winglets, sidepods. It's just a tub for the driver to sit in a hold a couple of parts

Newey used the term "all the aerodynamic surfaces are changing". Which I understand as anything that touches passing air.

[Farnborough]

New Engine isn't coming till Netherlands.
Newey said the gearbox and chassis structure isn't changing, didn't mention the cassette inside.
He specifically point out slight change in rear suspension mounting.
Sidepod change is possible cause he did says the aerodynamic surfaces are changing but the chassis isn't not changing.

So what counts as chassis? The monocoque the driver sits in, with the fuel and battery? The nose is separate from it, behind it there's the PU, to which the gearbox and everything else is mounted?

So what does it matter then? Everything of performance relevance is separate. Including the floor. But also mirror, winglets, sidepods. It's just a tub for the driver to sit in a hold a couple of parts

Newey used the term "all the aerodynamic surfaces are changing". Which I understand as anything that touches passing air.

The monocoque front section is accompanied by the rear monocoque (that is being described as "gearbox" ) with the two being rigidly mounted to each other via PU and its rules regulated bolt/pickup points to form one whole "chassis" of which the only noted change, from AN, is the minor shift of some rear suspension location. Ostensibly the same as now used effectively, with no fundamental or radical redesign.

The Transmission, from PU to differential, is located inside that rear structure, entirely.

Aero schema is what "clothes" that structural assembly listed above. This appears to involve most changes, from team comment, so far.

[diffuser]

So what counts as chassis? The monocoque the driver sits in, with the fuel and battery? The nose is separate from it, behind it there's the PU, to which the gearbox and everything else is mounted?

So what does it matter then? Everything of performance relevance is separate. Including the floor. But also mirror, winglets, sidepods. It's just a tub for the driver to sit in a hold a couple of parts

Newey used the term "all the aerodynamic surfaces are changing". Which I understand as anything that touches passing air.

The monocoque front section is accompanied by the rear monocoque (that is being described as "gearbox" ) with the two being rigidly mounted to each other via PU and its rules regulated bolt/pickup points to form one whole "chassis" of which the only noted change, from AN, is the minor shift of some rear suspension location. Ostensibly the same as now used effectively, with no fundamental or radical redesign.

The Transmission, from PU to differential, is located inside that rear structure, entirely.

Aero schema is what "clothes" that structural assembly listed above. This appears to involve most changes, from team comment, so far.

I like that description.

[draghixa]

May be this is the reason Honda brings the update engine in Netherlands.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/toto ... /10840464/

The first ADUO period saw Red Bull-Ford Powertrains placed at the top of the V6 power standings with Mercedes' trailing by between 2-4%, meaning it is entitled to one additional upgrade this year and one more next season. Ferrari, Audi and Honda were considered more than 4% behind and able to access two upgrades this season and two more next year.

The second ADUO period began from the Monaco GP and concludes at the Hungarian GP next week, meaning in theory the results will be communicated no more than two weeks later. However, the results of the first ADUO period still have not been officially published amid the Red Bull review.

Therefore all eyes will be on the FIA after the Hungarian GP for the results of the second ADUO period and whether any changes have been made that could see Mercedes put at the top of the pile. If that was the case, Red Bull’s power unit would still need to be at least 2% off Mercedes to be eligible for the upgrade opportunities.

[FNTC]

These ADUO rules are so insane that even if RB has the best ICE and Merc has the best overall PU, as long as Mercedes doesn't upgrade their ICE they will still be second in this next period. And Honda will be the same distance away since they didn't upgrade anything yet.

[diffuser]

These ADUO rules are so insane that even if RB has the best ICE and Merc has the best overall PU, as long as Mercedes doesn't upgrade their ICE they will still be second in this next period. And Honda will be the same distance away since they didn't upgrade anything yet.

Not sure what's so insane with that? The PU overall performance is stemming from programming. Programming is constantly evolving, it can be changed at all times except between qualifying and race. I would not expect and efficiency issues with the MGU-K. OK, unlike Merc, Audi and Honda who have EV teams that make electric motors for EVs that those respective teams can ask, RBPT do not.

Merc only have 1 update that they didn't use on there ICE, it does have an expiry of March 2027. I think Honda have 3 ICE updates. I believe 2 that expire on March 2027, I don't know when the other expires. Obviously the longer you can work on an upgrade the more you can work on it and hopefully the better it will be.