Having just seen the first images of the 2026 Aston Martin, there’s no question it’s an Adrian Newey Formula 1 car! Even without seeing the detail, you can tell it’s extreme, aggressive and all of those other words you can use for a car that pushes to extremes.
Concept-wise, it looks like it’s on the limit. The front and rear suspension appears to be pushrod, and the front top wishbone is very high and has a very wide base for its inboard pick-up points.
The rear upper wishbone also looks like its inboard pick-up points are very high and the lower rear wishbone looks very low. However, I’d need to see more shots from different angles before I can go into too much detail.
You could also say it has a ‘zero’ sidepod concept, and then some. That’s not so much in terms of width, but in terms of depth, it’s so slim I’m even surprised there is room for a radiator in there. The intake is high and letterbox shaped and the exit is fairly well forward in the engine cover sides and I would say ‘brutal’. However, some of that is because the engine cover behind that opening is undercut to the extreme.
As for the sidepod itself, it’s effectively an extreme double floor. This means the cross-sectional area between the wheels going from front to back will be smaller than the others that I have seen. That will mean a lot less airflow displacement as the car passes through it - which in turn should reduce the drag level. This could be very beneficial under these regulations.
Adrian is always very good at working out the right compromises when it comes to creating the most performance from a rules package. So with the energy demands of these cars and the value of low-drag in making best use of that, perhaps he’s decided to go all-in on that?
There also appears to be the return of the 'horns' on the side of the airbox. It’s difficult to see in detail, but they could be rollover bar supports allowing the airbox intake to be more open. Also, beside the driver's head there are some vertical turning vanes to help control the airflow direction in that area.
There is also a larger-than-most undercut between the bottom of that intake and the top of the driver’s headrest. I suppose that could be the reason for the ‘horns’, but it’s difficult to see how big those horns and fins are.
It does look like it might be ‘different’, to say the least, and that’s from front to rear.
But then again what else would you expect from the ‘pencil’ of Adrian Newey?
The first sight of the car has whetted everyone’s appetite and I’m looking forward to going over the detail when we see it.
