Aston Martin warn of ‘not pretty picture’ in brutal F1 2025 verdict

Aston Martin team principal Andy Cowell has indicated that the team might have to accept a difficult 2025 season with no further points scored, in order to focus on achieving greater improvements for 2026.

The Silverstone-based team currently has only 14 points after six races this year. With significant regulation changes on the horizon for 2026, Aston Martin appears poised to dedicate its resources to this future development, potentially leaving their 2025 performance stagnant.

Aston Martin Chief Paints Grim Picture on 2025 Chances

After a promising start in 2023, Aston Martin has experienced a decline in form, slipping from podium contention to seventh place in the Constructors' Championship.

While substantial efforts are being made behind the scenes, including facility upgrades and the recruitment of key personnel like Adrian Newey and Enrico Cardile, the primary objective is to be highly competitive in 2026, when Formula 1 will undergo a major technical reset. The 2025 season is increasingly being viewed as a transitional period.

When questioned about the possibility of not scoring any more points this season, Cowell acknowledged it as a "harsh reality" that the team must confront to achieve its long-term ambitions.

"That’s not a pretty picture you’ve described but it’s the harsh reality," he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, at Imola.

"We are Aston Martin, as a team with all our partners, we’re not here for just this season. We’re here to do well over many seasons.

"The 2026 regulations, that change, and the aero resource restrictions that we’ve got with CFD and wind tunnel time mean that we need to make some really awkward decisions.

"The thing that we’re all absolutely united on, though, is that transforming our business into an efficient development machine is priority number one, and that’s important for both ’25, if we choose to spend resources in ’25, and ’26, ’27, ’28, ’29, ’30 and onwards."

Despite the strategic focus on 2026, Aston Martin is introducing upgrades for the current Imola race. Cowell explained that these parts were developed using two different wind tunnels.

"So this is floor and top bodywork package that was work continuing on in the back end of December through until the first race in Melbourne," he said.

"So a lot of the development work was done in the previous wind tunnel, not the full aero team, because from January, part of the full aero team was working on ’26.

"The final bits of mapping work were done in our new tunnel, and anything that we decide to do beyond this weekend is clearly done in our new tunnel.

"I think the thing we’re trying to do is make sure that what we measure in the factory, that final mapping work in the new tunnel is as thorough as we can make it.

"And the way we test here at the circuit – that third world of aerodynamics, that full-size car with its different stiffness characteristics compared with a wind tunnel model and running on a track with curbs and bumps and undulations and movement of the car, that’s what we will learn tomorrow.

"It’s trying to be more thorough. Will it all stitch together? I doubt any team has 100% correlation."