Feb.17 (GMM) Aston Martin’s 2026 troubles might prolong past Honda’s energy unit and cooling issues, with Spain’s Marca reporting that the staff’s first in-house gearbox can be struggling underneath the calls for of the brand new rules.
The Silverstone outfit has switched from Mercedes-supplied transmissions to its personal design this season – however the brand new energy-heavy period is exposing weaknesses.
A key function of 2026 driving is aggressive downshifting, generally as little as first gear even underneath braking, to maximise vitality harvesting. Max Verstappen was among the many first seen mastering the approach in Bahrain testing, whereas others have tried to repeat it with various success.
Carlos Sainz summed up the fragile stability required.
“I insist, the mixing of the ability unit, the gearbox, and the motive force’s preferences should be a closed loop,” he stated. “The second a kind of two or three issues doesn’t work precisely as desired, issues start, so everybody must adapt and discover the correct path.”
In response to Marca, Aston’s gearbox “can not deal with the brand new calls for” of high-rev, low-gear cornering and braking within the present format. Consultants cited by the newspaper recommend a full redesign might take as much as six months – doubtlessly till July.
That timeline would align with Fernando Alonso’s earlier prediction that Aston might solely grow to be actually aggressive within the second half of the season.
One other reported weak level is Honda’s inner combustion engine, which is alleged to endure from vital vibrations at excessive revs – a problem which will additionally have an effect on gearbox sturdiness.
With the 2026 engines due for homologation on March 1, sources recommend a brand new {hardware} specification earlier than Melbourne is unlikely. Software program updates geared toward unlocking efficiency are in growth, however the bodily engine will stay unchanged for the opening races.
A attainable partial treatment might come later within the season by way of the FIA’s stability mechanism for underperforming producers, however paddock chatter suggests Aston might carry a deficit of some degree till 2027.
Workforce ambassador Pedro de la Rosa stopped wanting blaming a single part.
“It’s all a package deal deal today,” he stated. “With these new rules, braking efficiency impacts straight-line pace, as a result of the flexibility to reap underneath braking and your stability underneath braking could be very robust.
“You possibly can downshift one other gear on the apex, which implies you will have extra vitality on the following straight. We simply have to make the automobile extra sturdy total.”
Alonso, in the meantime, stays publicly optimistic.
“On the automobile presentation, we stated that we would discover ourselves lagging behind initially of the season, however the second half of the 12 months must be higher. I nonetheless stand by that opinion,” he stated.
“The automobile we convey to Melbourne will probably be very totally different from the one we’re testing. We have now a man (Adrian Newey) with 30 years of System 1 expertise. He’s dominated all that point, so we’ll finally get the very best automobile. It’s a matter of time.”
