Barcelona’s first proper glimpse of the 2026 grid has done what winter running always does: handed the paddock just enough evidence to start picking sides, spinning theories and, in Aston Martin’s case, turning a shakedown into a full-blown talking point.
The car in question is the AMR26 — Adrian Newey’s first Aston Martin design since completing his move from Red Bull last year — and it’s already drawing the kind of attention rivals usually try to avoid giving away this early. George Russell didn’t dance around it after the opening pre-season test in Barcelona, calling Aston Martin “probably the most standout car in terms of car design”.
That’s not an idle compliment in a pitlane where drivers are trained to say almost nothing of value about a competitor’s work. Russell even flagged what caught his eye: the rear suspension, which he described as “very impressive”. It’s the sort of detail that gets engineers lingering a fraction longer in the Aston garage doorway, pretending they’re looking for someone.
Of course, Russell also delivered the necessary reality check: aesthetics don’t score points. “It’s not a competition of how sexy it is, it’s a competition of how fast it goes around the track,” he said — the kind of line that reads like a throwaway but is really a warning not to confuse “interesting” with “quick”. Still, the fact he’s talking about it at all tells you Aston has achieved the first objective of winter: make your rivals look twice.
Inside Aston Martin, the message is even more bullish. Staffer Neil Zambardi-Christie described the AMR26 as “on another level” compared to previous designs he’s worked on, praising the “attention to detail” as “incredible”. That sort of language can be dangerous in February — hype is easy to create and hard to live with — but it also speaks to the internal mood at Silverstone. Newey arriving was never meant to be subtle. The AMR26 is Aston making sure nobody forgets that.
The backdrop matters, too. 2026 isn’t just a new car; it’s a reset season, and Aston Martin is starting it with Honda as its new technical partner. The deal was announced almost three years ago, and this is the moment it begins to carry real consequences. Pairing a Newey chassis philosophy with Honda power is a tantalising idea on paper — and exactly why other teams are watching this project as closely as they are.
Yet for all the intrigue around the machine, Aston’s week in Barcelona also carried a slightly awkward subplot: Lance Stroll barely got to drive it.
Stroll’s first taste of the AMR26 amounted to five laps, late on the penultimate day of running, before Fernando Alonso took over for the entire final day. Sky F1 pundit and former Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins suggested Stroll “will feel a little hard done by” after such a short-lived debut.
In testing terms, five laps is nothing — barely enough to put heat through the systems and give a driver a sense of cockpit feel. If the running plan was disrupted, that’s understandable; teams protect mileage like currency in these early sessions. But it’s also hard to ignore the optics. When you’ve got a brand-new car, a famous new technical leader, and a championship-reset year, the desire to get both drivers embedded in the programme is obvious. Anything less invites the kind of chatter Aston probably doesn’t need.
And chatter is what winter specialises in. Every team insists they’re calm, methodical and focused on the data, while simultaneously reading far too much into a rival’s ride height, a suspension shroud, or who got the afternoon session.
Elsewhere, Williams has finally shown the FW48 livery after being the lone team to miss the opening Barcelona test due to delays in its programme. It’s an inauspicious start on the surface, but the team’s context is clear enough: Williams is targeting a serious step forward in 2026 after sacrificing car development last year. With three Mercedes customer outfits on the grid, the competitive spread among them will be one of the quieter, more revealing storylines once the racing begins — and missing early mileage is never ideal when you’re trying to compress a year’s worth of learning into a winter.
Haas, meanwhile, has tidied up its contingency planning by confirming Jack Doohan as its reserve driver for 2026. Doohan joins Ryo Hirakawa on the team’s reserve roster, giving Haas depth if it needs to call on someone at short notice. It’s a sensible move — not headline-grabbing, but the kind of decision teams are increasingly keen to lock down early as calendars expand and availability becomes more complicated.
Still, the first week of 2026’s on-track story has been dominated by the same question the paddock always gravitates toward: who’s found something?
Aston Martin, for now, is doing everything a team can do in February to make the answer sound like it might be them. The AMR26 looks different enough to be discussed. Rivals are openly pointing at its details. Internally, the language is confident. The only thing missing — as ever — is the one measurement that counts.
We’ll find out soon enough whether “standout” translates into “front row”.
