Aston Martin claims team already working on new model for 2022 F1 season

Aston Martin is reportedly working on a completely different spec of its 2022 F1 challenger and hopes to debut the new car in the early part of the new season.

According to the team’s performance director Tom McCullough, the team has incorporated crucial lessons it learned across winter testing, as well as ideas observed from other teams into the AMR22. Speaking to Motorsport.com following the conclusion of the Bahrain pre-season testing, he said:

“The car you’re seeing now is nothing like the car we have in the wind tunnel. And I’m sure that’s the same for everybody, up and down the pitlane. As you’re adapting your cars, and optimising your cars, there’s going to be an element of that car is strong, and it’s gone that way that we sort of half looked at before. So, let’s revisit the data we’ve already got.”

He further went on to say:

“We tried not to drive ourselves into any cul-de-sacs. So, of all the different solutions out there, from the packaging and philosophy side of things, we just thought we want to be able to have a bit of freedom not to lock ourselves in totally to just one philosophy. I think for the aero design guys it must be information overload for those people at the moment.”

Aston Martin was the first team to show off its real 2022 F1 car, conducting a shakedown in early February. The team intended to get a head start in learning as much as it could about its new challenger while giving itself plenty of time to react to any issues it might face.

Furthermore, the team's technical director Andrew Greene also made it clear that they would investigate ideas from other teams and expected the AMR22 to look completely different by the first race of the season.

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Aston Martin serious about developing own power unit: Stroll

Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll has revealed that the team is seriously considering the prospect of developing its own power unit for the 2026 regulations. The team is reportedly investigating the benefits of a homegrown power unit with fuel partner Aramco.

Speaking in an interview with Reuters, Stroll said:

“We’re quite serious. Aramco [fuel partner] and I are discussing doing our own production engine for ‘26, the rules do change... So we have a team of people currently studying the opportunity.”

F1 is hoping to lure more manufacturers to the sport in the near future and has announced new power unit regulations for the 2026 season. The new formula retains the current turbo hybrid V6 internal combustion unit while simplifying as well as increasing the scope of the hybrid technology.

Several manufacturers, including Porsche and Audi, have already shown interest, while Red Bull is also developing its own power unit following Honda’s departure.