Aston Martin’s AMR26 turns heads ahead of highly-anticipated debut

“Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari… and you can’t rule out Aston Martin. What Newey has done is incredible.” George Russell captured the mood perfectly after witnessing the AMR26 roll out of the garage for the first time last Thursday in Barcelona.

The car—sharp‑edged, raw, unpainted, and stripped of sponsor decals—generated as much excitement as uncertainty. Before preseason testing kicks off in Bahrain (Feb. 11–13 and Feb. 18–20), Aston Martin is making a high‑profile stop this Monday in Ithra, Saudi Arabia, to officially unveil the machine Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will race in 2026. It mirrors the splashy reveals we saw from Cadillac during the Super Bowl halftime break and from McLaren earlier Monday in Bahrain.

A marketing push as bold as the car itself

Aston Martin is going all‑in. Adrian Newey—arguably the most influential designer in modern F1—has even appeared on the giant screens in Times Square. The AMR26 has been the centerpiece of the Silverstone campus since April 2025, when Newey arrived as the team’s chief technical architect. Only a couple of his ideas trickled into the disappointing AMR25, and not all of them worked—like the Silverstone floor upgrade that barely saw track time. But by late 2025, insiders were already describing a factory running like a perfectly tuned machine.

Aston Martin now has every ingredient to accelerate its climb:

A Massive Challenge—and a Major Risk

For the first time, Aston Martin is no longer a Mercedes customer team. They’ve designed their own gearbox and rear suspension—components they previously purchased from Mercedes. That shift brings risk: new systems often come with reliability gremlins. But it also gives Aston Martin full control over how Honda’s power unit is integrated, allowing them to influence packaging and design from the ground up. Early photos of the AMR26 already show extreme tightness around the engine bay.

The rollout hasn’t been smooth. The team arrived late to Barcelona—rumors point to a crash test delay, though nothing is confirmed—and they head to Bahrain with very few miles on the car. They completed just 65 laps at Montmeló, a tiny sample for a brand‑new Honda power unit. Honda has said they’re pleased with the electric side of the hybrid system but less satisfied with the combustion engine. For most teams, that combination of optimism and concern would sound like trouble.

But this isn’t “most teams.”

Why the AMR26 is the most anticipated car of the season

The AMR26 has become one of the biggest storylines of the early F1 season for one simple reason: Adrian Newey designed it, and Fernando Alonso will drive it.

That pairing alone has the entire F1 world watching—eager to see whether Aston Martin’s bold gamble can disrupt the sport’s established order.

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