Bernie Collins breaks down Aston Martin’s 2026 F1 car after Adrian Newey design revealed

Aston Martin's first entire car from the hands of Adrian Newey has certainly been the talk of Formula 1 after it was revealed last week in Barcelona for testing. Bernie Collins, Sky Sports F1 analyst and former strategist for the Silverstone team, was impressed by what she saw as she offered her analysis in the broadcaster's coverage. 

“What a mammoth undertaking to get that car out,” she said, referencing the team's so far successful adoption of the Honda power unit. "New engine, new gearbox — and we’ve talked already in the week about Aston Martin not having done their own gearbox in many, many years. They’ve brought it all together."

The Aston Martin was one of several teams to opt for a more unpainted design. 

“Not painted is a good way to hide the aspects of the car,” Bernie explained. “It’s very difficult in moving pictures to see any of the detail in there."

While the team's drivers sat towards the bottom of the pecking order with two-time champion Fernando Alonso finishing 17th on the timesheet and Lance Stroll at the very bottom, the usual testing caveats remain with the team potentially running more conservative tunes on its engine or gearbox through the week. 

"We focus a lot when we look at a car on the top surface,” she said, turning her attention to the aero trickery designed by Newey and his team. "But it’s actually the undersurface of the car that has to generate a lot of the downforce.

"And what they’re doing with this nose," she said, pointing to the front of the car that is clearly different to the rest of the grid. "The top is obviously cutting through the air, if you like, but that bottom chamfered profile is what is controlling how the air breaks away or any stall in the air off the front wing.

"You want to deliver air further back the car with as little disturbance as possible. You want to be able to use that air to generate more downforce further back on the car. And this very tapered profile initially on the front wing — and then obviously it gets much more aggressive later on — will be to try and keep that air in contact with the bottom of the car as much as possible."

The suspension being a major part of the aero set-up is also a Newey hallmark. 

“Adrian Newey, the pure aerodynamicist, is pushing for downforce,” she said. “He’s positioning the suspension in a way that is generating downforce or reducing drag — one of those two is his main aim — and not maybe focused as much on the cornering performance from a mechanical side. And he’s forcing the mechanical suspension into somewhere that other designers might not be happy to go.”

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin

Photo by: Aston Martin Racing

Finally, Collins turned her attention to the floor - the part of the car that defined the previous ground effect ruleset but will be equally as important this season - and the airbox. 

“The floor in these will also be the one that’s generating the majority of the downforce," she continued. "You can start to see the rake that we’re getting back into these cars. You can see the back of the car noticeably higher than the front — which is what we talk about when we talk about rake in the car — a bit nose-down. That’s really nice to see here.

"But all of these little vanes that were produced around the front wing or around that airbox, they’re all on purpose. They’ve all got a method of flowing the air to the back, down to the diffuser, trying to get it onto that rear wing, trying to get it onto the floor of the car.

"The airbox in this is very different to some of the others that we’ve seen — it was much, much bigger. And that’s one of the beauties of having your own engine manufacturer and your own gearbox: you can control those sort of air intakes as you wish to with the overall design of the car.”

Newey's car has certainly stolen headlines, but will it perform as well as it looks come the Melbourne race that starts the season? After substantial investment from Lawrence Stroll, he'll be hoping it pays off.