Few teams on the current grid have a name history as eventful as Aston Martin’s. The roots of today’s outfit go back to 1991, when Jordan Grand Prix made its Formula One debut in Silverstone. Through the stages of Midland, Spyker and Force India the team kept evolving, before it was taken over out of insolvency by Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll in 2018 and renamed Racing Point. Since 2021 the outfit has raced under the name of British sports car manufacturer Aston Martin, in which Stroll also holds a significant stake.
A particularly controversial chapter was written in 2020 as Racing Point: the RP20 was modelled so closely on the previous year’s Mercedes that rivals dubbed it the “Pink Mercedes.” The FIA found several components to have been illegally copied and hit the team with a fine and points penalty, yet Racing Point still finished the season with what was then the best result in its history, fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, including the team’s first race win, courtesy of Sergio Perez in Bahrain the following season.
Fernando Alonso’s arrival in 2023 marked the team’s greatest sporting high point to date: the two-time world champion reached the podium in six of the first eight races of his debut season. To build on such results, team owner Stroll signed Adrian Newey in 2024, one of the most successful car designers in Formula One history, who had previously spent almost two decades shaping Red Bull.
For the 2026 season, Newey took on the role of team principal for the first time in his career, while also being responsible for the first Aston Martin chassis designed entirely by him. At the same time, the team began a new works partnership with Honda as engine supplier. With Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, the driver line-up remains unchanged, as the outfit hopes its new Silverstone factory will finally deliver a lasting step forward.