What comes next for Aston Martin F1?

To say it has been a difficult start to the 2026 Formula 1 season for Aston Martin would be an understatement.

This was supposed to be the year that Lawrence Stroll’s grand vision came to live. A fresh regulation set, giving new team principal and managing technical partner Adrian Newey a fresh canvas to design a challenger for the team, and perhaps get the jump on the rest of the grid. But struggles throughout pre-season testing and the first two races of the season have seen Aston Martin mired at the back of the grid, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both yet to complete a full race distance.

The main culprit? Severe vibrations with the new Honda power unit, vibrations that were so significant earlier in the year that components would literally break off the AMR26. Those vibrations left the team short on components, specifically batteries, as the situation was causing significant damage to those components, but also posed a problem for the drivers.

The reason? The vibrations were so severe that their drivers could not complete a race distance without risk. Both Stroll and Alonso were unable to drive more than 15-25 laps without concerns of permanent nerve damage, and both the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and the Chinese Grand Prix became glorified testing sessions for the team, as they look to rebound after the difficult start and get a handle on the vibrations caused by the Honda power units.

But the team is still searching for a solution.

“Way too many vibrations compared to any other session of the weekend. I felt it was the limit,” Alonso told Sky Sports F1 after stopping in the Chinese Grand Prix.

”If we were fighting for something, you would hold your eyes and hands, but I started to lose feeling in my hands. It’s not a nice feeling.”

However, rumors are starting to swirl around the team, focused on Newey’s role as team principal.

According to multiple reports, Aston Martin is believed to be searching for a new team principal, with an eye towards letting Newey focus on the technical side of the operation. Newey was appointed to the team principal role, in addition to his technical duties, last November. But according to available reporting, such as this from BBC Sport, it was never intended to be a permanent role, with Aston Martin continuing to look for an ideal team principal.

But the team’s slow start has perhaps accelerated that process, and it is believed that Aston Martin has reached out to several major figures in the sport, including current Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley and current Red Bull engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who serves as Red Bull’s head of racing as well as Max Verstappen’s race engineer. Newey worked with both during his time at Red Bull, during which Wheatley was the team’s sporting director.

On Thursday, with increased speculation that Wheatley had been selected for the role — in what would be a shocking move from Audi given that team’s start to the 2026 season — both Aston Martin and Audi released statements to the media addressing the rumors.

”The team will not be engaging in media speculation about its senior leadership team. Adrian Newey continues to lead the team as team principal and managing technical partner,” said a spokesperson from Aston Martin.

”We are aware of the recent media reports. There is no official update from our side at this point in time and we do not comment on speculation,” offered an Audi spokesperson.

Of course, there is one more titan of the sport lurking in the shadows.

Former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

Horner, who was shown the door last season by Red Bull, is believed to have met with Lawrence Stroll earlier this week about a possible role with the team. Following his departure from Red Bull, Horner has been linked to several teams on the grid, including Alpine and Ferrari.

The main focus for Aston Martin remains the vibration problem, with the team still searching for an answer. While Aston Martin did find a “workaround,” isolating the batteries from the vibration, that only stopped the batteries from failing, and not the transfer of the vibration from the power unit to the chassis and ultimately, the drivers’ themselves.

As Alonso continued following the Chinese Grand Prix: “I could not probably finish the race anyway. Vibrations level were very high today. At one point, from lap 20 to 35, I was struggling a little bit to feel my hands and my feet. We were one lap behind, we were last. It was probably no point to keep on going.”

F1 returns next week with the Japanese Grand Prix. Perhaps we will learn more about where Aston Martin goes from here in Suzuka.

Update: Well, we might be learning more sooner than we thought. Audi announced on Friday morning that Wheatley was leaving the team “with immediate effect” due to personal reasons.