{"id":366628,"date":"2026-04-06T18:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/366628\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T18:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:34:16","slug":"f1s-project-newey-is-a-bust-and-aston-martin-rivals-cannot-believe-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/366628\/","title":{"rendered":"F1’s Project Newey is a bust, and Aston Martin rivals cannot believe it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adrian Newey<\/a>‘s Aston Martin F1 project has got off to a disastrous start, and even his rivals are shocked. <\/p>\n

\nNewey-designed cars have won 26 championships across his illustrious career, and the British legend joined the Silverstone outfit last March, hoping to try and turn them into a championship-contending team. <\/p>\n

\nBut the first car that has properly had his imprint stamped on it is an unreliable machine that is causing immense vibrations for its drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Article continues under video<\/p>\n

\nMany of the problems are being attributed to their power unit manufacturers Honda, and Stroll is yet to have been able to finish a race, while two-time world champion Alonso reached the chequered flag at the Japanese Grand Prix for the first time this season. <\/p>\n

\nBut Newey and Honda had previously experienced a sustained period of success at Red Bull, and Aston Martin had been hoping that the partnership would reap rewards for them too. <\/p>\n

\nEven when they have been able to complete a full session, the team have been one of the slowest on the grid, with new outfit Cadillac managing to outqualify both Aston Martins last time out in Japan. <\/p>\n

\nAnd now, Cadillac driver Sergio Perez<\/a> – who previously worked with Newey between 2021-2024 – has admitted his surprise to find himself in a battle at the back of the grid against the Newey-designed cars. <\/p>\n

\n“To be honest, I wasn\u2019t expecting it,” Perez told DAZN. “I\u2019d hoped that Fernando would be fighting for the top spots, I had a lot of faith in the project with Newey. <\/p>\n

\n“I worked with Adrian at Red Bull and with Honda as well. But hey, that\u2019s the nature of the sport, and right now we\u2019re battling it out with Fernando. <\/p>\n

\n“Race by race, at least we won\u2019t get bored and we\u2019ll have a good time. I always tell Fernando, I always joke with him, that they shouldn\u2019t improve too quickly so we can have fun together and start making progress together.” <\/p>\n

\nF1 HEADLINES: F1 teams head to Nurburgring as FIA approve new race<\/a> <\/p>\n

Cadillac’s unplanned battles<\/p>\n

\nBefore the season had even started, Cadillac team principal Graeme Lowdon had stated that Cadillac would find themselves running last in the pecking order in 2026, being the new outfit on the grid. <\/p>\n

\nHe explained that they had pieced together a team in the space of a year, hiring over 500 people to key roles<\/a>, and that it would take a few years until we began to see the real potential of the team. <\/p>\n

\nBut they have been in a battle with two established teams in Aston Martin and Williams<\/a> in the early weeks of the season, albeit at the back of the grid. <\/p>\n

\nWhile they are unlikely to be scoring points anytime soon, Perez and Valtteri Bottas<\/a> seem to be enjoying having other cars around them to fight with on track. <\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE: Alpine F1 team release statement over driver sabotage claims<\/a><\/p>\n

Related\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adrian Newey‘s Aston Martin F1 project has got off to a disastrous start, and even his rivals are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[55010,192417,4752,111,43,139,69,77409,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-366628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-aston-martin","9":"tag-aston-martin-f1","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-sam-cook","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}