Aston Martin's Adrian Newey doesn't feel his eye-catching AMR26 is "aggressive", as his first design for his new Formula 1 team caught the eye of its rivals in Barcelona.

After a delayed rollout, the AMR26 left the garage on the penultimate day of the Barcelona shakedown sporting a unique engine cover and sidepod design as well as a radical suspension geometry.

Mercedes' George Russell called Newey's creation “spectacular”, and said that Aston sported the “most standout car design”. Williams team boss James Vowles was also impressed by what the design guru had done.

"It's really impressive," Vowles said. "Adrian is just a creative designer. And it's really impressive what he's done with wishbones in places that I don't think they should be. But he's done them. 

"You'll see it in our front wishbone. It's slightly different, but where Adrian's gone is Adrian. Very impressive, very creative, very extreme. I wouldn't want to be the designer for that one. Let's put it that way."

Adrian Newey, Managing Technical Partner of Aston Martin F1 Team

But in a Q&A on Aston Martin's website, Newey doesn't feel he has done anything other than interpret the radically different 2026 regulations the way he feels is best.

"We took a really close look at the regulations and what we believe we want to achieve from a flow field perspective to suit them, and from there started to evolve a geometry that attempts to create the flow fields that we want. It's very much a holistic approach," he said.

"I never look at any of my designs as aggressive. I just get on with things and pursue what we feel is the right direction.

"The direction we've taken could certainly be interpreted as aggressive. It's got quite a few features that haven't necessarily been done before. Does that make it aggressive? Possibly. Possibly not."

But Newey says the jury is still out on whether his team's interpretation has been the right one, as he admitted that Aston Martin's four-month delay in getting its new windtunnel online meant the Silverstone squad's 2026 car development had to follow a "compressed timescale".

"In truth, with a completely new set of regulations, nobody is ever sure what the right philosophy is," he cautioned.

"We certainly aren't sure what the best interpretation of the regulations is and therefore the best philosophy to follow.

"Because of our compressed timescale, we decided on a particular direction and that's the one we've pursued. Whether that proves to be the right one or not, only time will tell. But you have to choose your path and get on with it."

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

Detailing some of his design choices, he added: "It starts with the overall packaging of the car: where is the car carried over the wheelbase, where are the main masses carried. Then it's worked through to the front and rear suspension – the front and rear suspension both have their own very important part to play in that manipulation of the flow field.

"You've got the front wing and the nose shape, which are somewhat different this year. You keep moving through to the sidepods, and the treatment around the rear of the car, which is certainly different to what we've done previously.

"The car is tightly packaged. Much more tightly packaged than I believe has been attempted at Aston Martin before. This has required a very close working relationship with the mechanical designers to achieve the aerodynamic shapes we wanted.

"But I have to say that all the mechanical designers here have really embraced that philosophy. It hasn't made their life easy, quite the opposite, but they've really risen to the challenge."

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