It’s starting to sound like Adrian Newey’s Aston Martin might suck

Far be it from me to doubt Adrian Newey knows what he’s doing, but I did have a feeling people were going a little gaga about the possibility that the Great Wizard would be able to pull a perfect Formula 1 car out of his hat that he designed by hand with a pencil after reading the most complex motor racing regulations ever devised.

As it turns out, the 2026 Aston Martin has been an absolute handful in testing, and a slow one at that. Sure, I half-believe the kinds of things the team says about starting off behind but having a powerful development pipeline in place. I believe Adrian Newey knows how to do those kinds of things. But I think this team might just be fundamentally dysfunctional.