Adrian Newey reportedly delayed a final decision on the Aston Martin AMR26 suspension design until as late as possible.<\/p>\n
Newey, who will act as Aston Martin team principal this year, has led the development of the new AMR26 car for the F1 2026 season.<\/p>\n
AMR26 suspension a key consideration for Adrian Newey and Aston Martin<\/p>\n
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Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust<\/p>\n The AMR26 will be the first car to be produced by Newey since he completed his high-profile move from Red Bull last year, as well as marking the start of Aston Martin\u2019s new technical partnership with Honda.<\/p>\n The arrivals of Newey and Honda have resulted in high expectations for Aston Martin in F1 2026, which sees the chassis and engine rules overhauled as the sport embraces 50 per cent electrification, fully sustainable fuels and active aerodynamics.<\/p>\n The AMR26 is currently scheduled to appear on track for the first time in the opening pre-season test of F1 2026 in Barcelona next week.<\/p>\n A five-day test will be held in Spain across January 26-30 with each team limited to a maximum of three days of running.<\/p>\n Aston Martin will then officially launch its F1 2026 car on February 9 ahead of the final two tests in Bahrain.<\/p>\n Adrian Newey: Aston Martin\u2019s ticket to the top of F1<\/p>\n Why Adrian Newey\u2019s private Alonso talks are so important for Aston Martin<\/a><\/p>\n F1 2026 uncovered: Next-gen cars, new tyres, and design decisions<\/a><\/p>\n The suspension choices taken by each team has made for an early 2026 development trend over recent weeks.<\/p>\n A double-pushrod suspension was spotted on the Audi F1 2026 car<\/a> during the team\u2019s shakedown earlier this month, with Red Bull and Racing Bulls following the same path with its showcars<\/a> and renders last week.<\/p>\n Persistent reports over recent months have claimed that Ferrari is to also have a pushrod suspension at the front of the rear<\/a> of its new SF-26 machine, which will be officially presented on Friday.<\/p>\n Other teams are expected to switch to a pushrod suspension \u2013 a move facilitated by F1\u2019s move away from ground-effect machinery for 2026 \u2013 as launch season unfolds this week.<\/p>\n However, it has been claimed that Newey has been agonising over the choice of suspension for the AMR26.<\/p>\n A report by Italian publication Auto Racer has suggested that the Aston Martin team principal delayed a final decision on the car\u2019s suspension until \u2018as late as possible\u2019 in the car\u2019s development.<\/p>\n Suspension has been a key consideration for Newey over recent years with the 67-year-old revealing in 2022 that he personally designed the front and rear suspension of Red Bull\u2019s RB18 car for that season.<\/p>\n Newey\u2019s expertise in this area ensured that Red Bull was not as affected as other teams by the porpoising phenomenon, which became a theme of the first ground-effect season in 2022.<\/p>\n That year saw Red Bull claims a constructors\u2019 and drivers\u2019 title double as Max Verstappen claimed a then-record 15 victories.<\/p>\n A decision on Aston Martin\u2019s suspension for 2026 may have been complicated by the arrival of Enrico Cardile, the former Ferrari technical director who arrived in the role of chief technical officer last summer.<\/p>\n Ferrari\u2019s suspension choices were heavily scrutinised in Cardile\u2019s final years at Maranello as the Scuderia and customer outfit Haas were the only teams to stick with a pullrod rear suspension long after every other team on the grid had switched to pushrod.<\/p>\n Defending the decision at the launch of Ferrari\u2019s 2024 car, Cardile told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets that the team found no notable performance differences when directly comparing a pushrod and pullrod suspension.<\/p>\n Writing in his 2017 book, How To Build A Car, Newey revealed that he introduced a system at Red Bull designed to scrutinise a development idea before a decision was taken on whether the team committed to it.<\/p>\n The so-called \u201924-hour rule\u2019 saw Newey and his technical team mull over a suggestion for a minimum of 24 hours before a conclusion was reached.<\/p>\n Newey wrote: \u201cAt Red Bull I\u2019ve introduced what I call the 24-hour rule, which is that we sit on an idea for a day or so, throw it around and talk about it, but don\u2019t do anything concrete until it has been critiqued.<\/p>\n \u201cDoes it still stand up after 24 hours? If the answer\u2019s no then we chuck it in the bin.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter that comes developing the idea. In my own case this usually means first a sketch and then the drawing board.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the 1980s, if the drawings were for aerodynamic components they would be passed to the model makers to make a model by hand.<\/p>\n \u201cNowadays, almost all manufacturing is by computer-controlled machines; my hand drawings are scanned and then turned into 3D surfaces on our computer systems.<\/p>\n \u201cThen you go to the wind tunnel, test the parts and the results will determine whether your ideas are any good or not.\u201d<\/p>\n Newey has used regulation changes to good effect over the course of his F1 career with Red Bull, McLaren and Williams all enjoying success after major rule resets over the last three decades.<\/p>\n However, the design guru cautioned last year that Aston Martin is unlikely to enjoy a similar leap forward at the start of the new rules cycle in 2026.<\/p>\n Speaking during his first trackside appearance with the team at last year\u2019s Monaco Grand Prix, Newey branded Aston Martin\u2019s simulation tools \u201cweak.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n He also warned that the driver-in-the-loop simulator, a critical device in the era of limited on-track testing, \u201cneeds a lot of work because it\u2019s not correlating at all at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Aston Martin has since taken steps to remedy the issue, hiring Giles Wood \u2013 Newey\u2019s former colleague at Red Bull \u2013 to the role of simulation and vehicle modelling director just weeks after Newey\u2019s remarks in Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n Wood\u2019s move to Aston Martin saw him return to F1 for the first time since 2017 after a spell with technology giant Apple in the intervening years.<\/p>\n As reported by PlanetF1.com<\/a>, Aston Martin also brought in simulations guru Marco Fainello, who worked at Ferrari during Michael Schumacher\u2019s period of dominance, as a consultant last November.<\/p>\n Newey\u2019s concerns over Aston Martin\u2019s readiness for 2026 were echoed at the end of last season by driver Lance Stroll, who told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets that the Silverstone outfit does not yet have \u201call the tools to be a top team\u201d at this stage in its development.<\/p>\n Despite its recent title successes with Red Bull and Verstappen, meanwhile, Honda has also tempered expectations for the new season over recent weeks.<\/p>\n The 2026 season technically marks a full-time return to F1 for the Japanese manufacturer, which officially withdrew at the end of 2021.<\/p>\n The U-turn is likely to have compromised its preparations \u2013 both in terms of manpower and development time \u2013 compared to rival manufacturers ahead of 2026.<\/p>\n Koji Watanabe, the president of the Honda Racing Corporation, conceded earlier this month<\/a> that \u201cnot everything is going well\u201d with the development of the firm\u2019s 2026 engine.<\/p>\n Watanabe told Japanese outlet Sportiva:\u00a0\u201cTo be honest, not everything is going well, so there are many areas where we are struggling, but nothing fatal has happened that we cannot overcome.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this situation, we are quietly concentrating on improving performance and reliability.<\/p>\n \u201cAston Martin also wants to keep building cars that reflect Adrian\u2019s vision, so I think the next step for us on the power unit side is to figure out how to adapt to that.<\/p>\n \u201cIf doing so increases our competitiveness and makes us more likely to win, then we\u2019ll do whatever it takes!\u201d<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n