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With Adrian Newey more or less due to be announced by Aston Martin as its latest signing, the team is starting to position itself as a bit of a factor in F1. Recently, during the F1 British GP, the team also gave a tour of the facilities to the media in what appears to be arguably the most advanced facilities on the F1 grid.
Having someone like Lawrence Stroll at the top means you have a team that has the drive to win. The Canadian billionaire has pulled out all the stops when it comes to putting together an outfit that could be the benchmark in F1.
With that being said, Aston Martin still has not shown the tangible progress one might have expected from the team in the last few years. It is fifth in the championship right now, and this shows that there are still areas where work needs to be done. In this feature, we will take a look at the three possible areas where the team might need to work on as it makes a bid to be the next F1 powerhouse.
Areas Aston Martin still needs to work on
#1 The wind tunnel correlation issues
While there is some serious investment being made off-track in terms of getting the right people and building a brilliant infrastructure, the changes are yet to have a tangible on-track impact. Aston Martin is probably one team that has stood out the most when it comes to the inability to upgrade the car.
Since last season, every upgrade by the team's development unit has worked to the contrary. Instead of the car becoming better, the impact has been the opposite. This is the telltale sign of a team that is struggling with finding a perfect correlation with the wind tunnel. Aston Martin's wind tunnel should be up in 2025.
While that is a good thing for sure, it comes with its challenges as well, and you cannot expect things to fall into place within a season. Having said that, as Adrian Newey joins the team, this might be one of the biggest things the team might try to address.
#2 The power unit uncertainty
Having Honda as the power unit means that Aston Martin is going to be a standalone works operation as the Japanese manufacturer is exclusively working with the team. While this comes with its flaws, as there would be fewer cars providing the data, it has its benefits as well.
With that being said, one of the major challenges for Honda is going to be the fact that the brand started work on the 2026 regulations some time later than the competition in terms of Mercedes and Ferrari. At the same time, after wrapping up the operations in 2021, when Honda came back, it had to restart the operations as well and put things in place.
Ideally, the pedigree and track record of Honda should mean there's nothing to be worried about, but at the same time, it's not a given that the Japanese brand is perfectly in position to go after these new regulations.
#3 The driver lineup
Finally, probably one of the more important aspects has to be the fact that a driver lineup of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll might not be the best on the grid. Alonso, at his age, is still arguably one of the best drivers on the grid but you have to question how long he would continue to do so.
If Lance Stroll is going to be the second driver at Aston Martin, then the team might behoove itself and be willing to break the bank with an offer to Max Verstappen. The manner in which Red Bull is struggling right now, the Dutch driver could be persuaded if the right offer was put on the table for him.
