Aston Martin AMR26: the most powerful area is not the rear

The first public appearance of the new Aston Martin has aroused great curiosity, with several intriguing solutions. What immediately caught the eye was the rear axle, but a more in-depth analysis reveals that it is the front that is the most extreme area. The AMR26 also sports a very particular bodywork, but the competitiveness of the project will pass first and foremost through that of the Honda power unit and Aramco fuels. Record-breaking front suspension The 2026 is the first Aston Martin to have a rear end developed entirely in-house, after being tied to the Mercedes gearbox and rear suspension for years. Although the team had to face the challenge of setting up this project entirely from scratch, they were certainly not conservative in their approach. The rear suspension of the AMR26 fascinates with the extremely high position of the upper triangle for aerodynamic purposes, so much so that the rear arms engage directly on the wing supports (1). Despite appearances, however, it wasn’t so much the rear end that put Aston Martin’s technical department in difficulty, but rather the multilink front suspension, which presents itself as the most extreme area of ​​the AMR26. While waiting to clarify which is the steering arm, what is striking is the arrangement of the upper elements, whose attachment to the wheel hub (2) leads one to wonder whether the two arms are not actually decoupled from each other. For the moment, the certainty is that the rear element extends backwards downwards to an incredible extent, in an even more extreme manner than the McLaren. A grainy still image taken from a passage in the pit lane allows for a comparison between the two cars. On the MCL40, the arm that extends furthest towards the rear is the upper one (A), while on the Aston Martin it is the lower one (B). Taking both the bottom support (C) and the front halo attachment (D) as references, you can see how on the AMR26 the arms extend backwards much more than on the McLaren, outlining an even more extreme suspension. The solution must have posed great challenges in terms of chassis design, but the team led by Adrian Newey was determined to exploit the suspension elements as much as possible to guide the flows towards the bottom and the bodywork. The aerodynamic appearance The AMR26 is also the first Aston Martin to be created in its own wind tunnel, so much so that the team had postponed the start of the analyzes by a few weeks in order to be able to develop it entirely in the new infrastructure. Even with a different perspective, the large and rounded nose (3) continues to intrigue, giving rise to the most disparate hypotheses, including the presence of a different actuator for active aerodynamics. The bodywork has some similarities with that of Ferrari, showing off a descending shape of the bellies (4), which however remain higher than the previous generation of cars. The excavation under the sides to channel air towards the gearbox area is impressive, the result of a great deal of work in packaging the radiators and the power unit. Honda, for example, has created a battery distributed on two levels, so as to reduce its overall dimensions in length, thus allowing the rear axle to be narrowed. A large cooling vent (5) opens along the side surface of the bonnet, bringing forward part of the hot air evacuation compared to the tail, thus preserving the aerodynamic cleanliness of the rear environment. Despite still being a fairly rough look, the AMR26 already shows some aerodynamic appendages, such as the horns on the sides of the air scope above the pilot (6) and the vertical bulkheads near the halo (7). Finally, Aston Martin also features the opening in the side bulkhead of the diffuser (8), useful for injecting high energy flows under the car to facilitate the extraction of air and the generation of load from the bottom. Suspended judgment The first Aston Martin designed by Adrian Newey certainly represents a very daring project, supervised among others by top Italian technicians such as Enrico Cardile and Luca Furbatto. However, we will have to see how the AMR26 will perform on the track and above all whether it will be adequately supported by the Honda power unit, also powered for the first time by Aramco fuels. There are many unknowns, but even if it wasn’t already in 2026, the Silverstone team still aims to achieve great satisfaction in this technical cycle.