It’s hard to believe that Aston Martin, a company that makes expensive luxury supercars for the elite—the 1 percent—has any time for the 99 percent. Apparently, it does when it comes to its Formula 1 team. Aston Martin’s F1 tenure under Adrian Newey has not met the great expectations that were set.

One might have assumed that Adrian Newey would wave his magic wand, create a championship-winning car, and see Fernando Alonso win races, claim a championship, and ride off into the sunset as a contented man.

But the reality reads more like a nightmare novel than a Brothers Grimm fairytale. There is no Yellow Brick Road, no wizard hiding behind a curtain, and no happy ending.

Aston Martin’s season has become one of abject misery, compounded by the reality that more hardship is yet to follow. The team is implementing sweeping upgrades ahead of the next race, but fans should not expect miracles.

I said from the beginning of the season, during pre-season testing, that the Aston Martin looked like an advanced concept in need of significant development—and that is exactly what it has become.

For Aston Martin F1, 2026 has been reduced to a testing campaign. P1, P2, P3, sprint qualifying, sprint race, and the Grand Prix—all are effectively test weekends.

It is extremely rare for a revised package to make a car two seconds faster; typically, upgrades are designed to extract tenths of a second. Aston Martin is over two seconds slower than the leading teams, and would need a miracle, incantation, or rain dance to find that time in modern F1.

At the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix, team principal Mike Krack made a public apology to the fans after both drivers retired early due to technical issues.

The Aston Martin AMR initially had vibration issues, which were fixed, but the car remains slow and suffers from reliability problems. The upgrades are expected to arrive in time for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The planned upgrades will focus on the powertrain and chassis, but it takes time to design, test, and validate new parts. If they’re lucky, they might find a few tenths; in reality, Belgium will likely be used as another test session.

Aston Martin’s season is effectively a complete write-off. Every race becomes an extended test session, which will frustrate Fernando Alonso. And guess what? Formula 1’s silly season has already begun, with rumours circulating that Alonso is looking to leave for another team.