How Aston Martin F1 plans to become a “creative, chaotic innovation machine”

Aston Martin chief Andy Cowell says he wants his team to become a “creative, chaotic innovation machine” as it works its way to the front of Formula 1 under 2026’s new regulations.

Aston Martin has suffered a number of lean years while it is undergoing a rapid transformation and expansion process at its state-of-the-art headquarters opposite the Silverstone circuit.

The 2025 season turned out to be another character-building exercise, with Cowell saying he couldn’t help but wonder what key signing Adrian Newey and other hires could have done to boost its fortunes in the first part of an exclusive interview with Autosport. 

But now that Newey and former Ferrari tech chief Enrico Cardile are both operational and fully focused on delivering a world-beating car in 2026, and a landmark works engine partnership with Honda is beginning to ramp up, Cowell says this year has been crucial as he shapes the team into an agile organisation that doesn’t shy away from taking risks.

“It’s trying to get a creative, fun, chaotic innovation machine where anything goes,” Cowell told Autosport about his philosophy for the team that has rapidly grown in numbers over the past 24 months.

“But then you ask the engineer or the aerodynamicist what’s required to prove that out, to take your idea, do an experiment, get a conclusion that it will make the car quicker and that the car will still finish the race. What are the steps along that validation journey? And it’s not the same person all the way along. It’s different departments and engineers all the way along that journey.

“It’s just about defining that so that everybody knows what their responsibilities are, what their bit of the journey is, and making sure that’s clear and concise, and then people can go to greater depths of understanding in their field. And that’s the work that we’ve been trying to do. It paid off this year with the Imola update and [it should] pay off for future updates. We’re not going to cut corners, and we’re going to work out how to do that in a competitive lead time, but without dropping the quality.”

‘We won the championship of the number of upgrades in 2024 but didn’t get the rewards’

That Imola upgrade was the start of a mid-season upturn in form that allowed Aston to move up to sixth by the summer break, highlighted by fifth and seventh place finishes for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in Hungary. It was also a much-needed validation that its development tools and processes, including its brand-new windtunnel, are working as intended. That’s at least a sign of progress against the backdrop of 2023 and 2024, when the squad struggled to add significant performance to its cars during the year.

“It’s important for the confidence of the organisation,” Cowell nodded. “Last year we won the championship of the number of upgrades, which means that the effort that was put in by everybody was tremendous; from aerodynamicists and designers, composite designers, supply chain, internal manufacturing, and the teams preparing all the hardware to the mechanics at the track. If you don’t get the reward of the lap time improving, it’s not a great position to be in. It’s not good for morale.

“So, holding off until Imola was important to make sure that everything was in place. We were ready to go. The joy in the debrief after Imola was great to experience and now we just need to build on that for 2026 and beyond.”

Several key battlegrounds await in 2026, which presents a huge challenge in terms of aerodynamics, the new power trains and getting the car design down to a challenging minimum weight.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

For Aston, the move from Mercedes to Honda is adding an even bigger workload, as it will have to start designing and building its own suspensions and gearboxes rather than take customer parts.

“The challenge that we’re going through is working with a new power unit partner, Honda, but as a works relationship where the interfaces with the power unit are designed very much with them, and we have been doing that over the last 18-plus months,” Cowell explained.

“Everything is integrally designed, which is where Adrian’s experience of working with Honda and of what makes a great racing car is super valuable. Our own transmission and hydraulics do provide us the freedom to do our own rear suspension geometry, which marries in with the aerodynamics of the car.

“Many of these systems are new to us and all of that combined means that there are many project groups that have got tough new targets and a tough deadline of Melbourne 2026. Yes, we need to have tough targets, because there’s no point setting easy targets that can definitely be achieved.

“The first race of 2026 is happening right now in the factory, and that’s to innovate as quickly as possible in the most efficient manner. We will get our exam results in Melbourne.”