END OF YEAR REPORT: Aston Martin’s best and worst moments from 2025 and driver head-to heads

With a final placing of seventh in the Teams’ Championship, 2025 did not deliver what Aston Martin had hoped for. The Silverstone-based team have lofty ambitions – they don’t shy away from that – but a result that represented a fall of two places on where they finished each of the last two campaigns is a step backwards. The hope? That comes in the form of 2026 as new regulations bring new possibilities, and we can see what magic Adrian Newey has come up with. Here is Aston Martin’s 2025 end of year report…

Best finish

Fernando Alonso – 5th in Hungary

Fernando Alonso began the 2025 season in difficult form as the Spaniard had to wait until Round 9 at his home event to record his first top-10 finish of the year.

With upgrades delivered during that European triple header helping Aston Martin progress, Alonso went on to grab points at every weekend up until the summer break – bar a difficult outing for the team in Belgium – with that run culminating in a best finish of fifth in Hungary.

Alonso continued to deliver impressive performances after the August break, with points-scoring finishes coming in Zandvoort, Singapore, Austin, Qatar and Abu Dhabi – a sixth place in the finale also helped lift him into the top 10 of the Drivers’ Championship.

Team mate Lance Stroll began 2025 strongly, his sixth-place in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix proving his best result as he notched up 33 points for 16th in the standings.

Qualifying head-to-head

Alonso 24-0 Stroll

Alonso outqualified Stroll at every Grand Prix weekend this year as the Canadian struggled over one lap – he only managed to get out of Q1 nine times in 24 attempts across 2025.

You have to go back to the 2024 British Grand Prix for the last time Stroll bested his team mate in Qualifying, showing that Alonso’s one-lap pace hasn’t deserted him as he prepares to enter his 23rd Formula 1 season next year.

Race head-to-head

Alonso 16-8 Stroll

The two-time World Champion holds the upper hand in the Grand Prix head-to-head too after overcoming his aforementioned difficult start to the season, going on to break into the top 10 of the Drivers’ Standings.

By the time the August break arrived both drivers were on 26 points apiece, but Alonso went on to collect a further 30 points in the final 10 rounds of the year compared to Stroll’s seven in the same time period (six of which came courtesy of his seventh place finish in Zandvoort).

Best moment

Given the challenging Belgian Grand Prix the team endured – with both Alonso and Stroll finishing a lowly 17th and 14th respectively – the turnaround that came in Hungary a week later was spectacular.

With Alonso missing first practice in Budapest due to a muscular injury in his back, and reserve Felipe Drugovich taking his place, the Spaniard bounced back with a fifth in FP2 before going on to qualify in the same position on Saturday. As mentioned above, he went on to convert that into a fifth-placed finish on race day for the team’s best result of the year, as Stroll added to the points tally with his own impressive result of seventh that day.

Worst moment

Aston Martin have had their challenges in 2025, including a run of point-less races between Japan and Monaco (barring Stroll’s Miami Sprint result) and only being able to run one driver in Spain after the Canadian was forced to withdraw to undergo a medical procedure.

The team’s result in Belgium was also difficult, but for the worst moment of 2025 we’re going to opt for their Sunday in Monza. Stroll would go on to finish 18th that day – the last of the runners – while Alonso had shown promise after qualifying ninth and lining up in eighth on the grid thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s penalty.

However, any hope for points were dashed when – as he was running seventh – he was forced to retire with a suspension failure. The cause? A piece of gravel was kicked up by Lando Norris’ car at the start and struck the front right push rod on Alonso’s car. When your luck’s out and all that…

Goals for 2026

Like many on the grid, Aston Martin have been focused on 2026 for some time in the hope that they can capitalize on the sweeping new set of regulations and fight at the front.

Not only do they have consistency with their driver line-up, with both Alonso and Stroll continuing next year, but they also embark on their new era with Honda acting as the team’s exclusive power unit supplier – the Japanese company had previously had a long-standing partnership with Red Bull.

There’s also the Adrian Newey factor to consider. The design guru began working with the Silverstone outfit at the start of 2025, having spent the best part of two decades with Red Bull, and his primary focus in his position as Managing Technical Partner has been leading the design team with 2026 in mind. Soon we will see the fruits of that labour.

However, there is a question mark over Aston Martin’s leadership as it was announced ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix that Newey would be taking on the Team Principal role for 2026 – the first time he’s ever assumed that position.

In doing so he takes over from Andy Cowell, who had taken on the role himself from Mike Krack in January 2025. Instead, Cowell will become Chief Strategy Officer in order to focus on Aston Martin’s partnership with Honda.

But will those added responsibilities distract Newey from car design? The Briton insists not, as he said he was “determined not to dilute” his focus in that area.

Time will tell as to whether Aston Martin have got all this right. But given the money invested in the operation, fighting further forward is a must in 2026.