TEAM PREVIEW: Can a reshuffled Aston Martin come back fighting in 2025?

There is both change and stability at Aston Martin in 2025. While Andy Cowell replaces Mike Krack as Team Principal on the managerial side, ahead of star designer Adrian Newey’s arrival, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll form one of only two unbroken driver line-ups – alongside McLaren – on the grid. After failing to build on their 2023 surge last season, what can we expect from Lawrence Stroll’s operation this time out? Here’s all you need to know…

Drivers for 2025

Fernando Alonso #14: 2 World Championships, 32 wins, 106 podiums, 22 pole positions, 2337 points, 401 starts
Lance Stroll #18: 3 podiums, 1 pole position, 292 points, 166 starts

After returning from his F1 break and spending two seasons with Alpine, Fernando Alonso made the switch to Aston Martin for 2023, scoring the team’s first F1 podium finishes with an electrifying start to the campaign.

He is the most experienced driver in the sport and one of only three active World Champions, along with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and new Ferrari signing Lewis Hamilton, having won the 2005 and 2006 titles for Renault.

Lance Stroll, meanwhile, is entering his seventh season with the Silverstone-based team, the son of owner Lawrence joining under their Racing Point guise in 2019 – two years after debuting in F1 at Williams.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Lance Stroll of Canada and Aston Martin F1 Team Fernando Alonso of — Spanish racer Alonso and Canadian Stroll are sticking together at Aston Martin

Last season

After their fast start to 2023 faded, Aston Martin hoped the 2024 campaign would bring them back towards Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, but it soon became clear that they had no chance of climbing from P5 in the standings.

Indeed, eight podium finishes and 280 points became zero podium finishes and 94 points, while their best result across 24 rounds was a drive to fifth position from Alonso at the early-season Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

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Aston Martin’s efforts were again hindered by mis-hitting developments, with new team boss Cowell neatly summarising: “We definitely won the World Championship for the most updates in 2024, but those updates didn’t deliver the lap time.”

ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS - AUGUST 23: Fernando Alonso of Spain driving the (14) Aston Martin AMR24 — Aston Martin fell away from the front-running pack of teams last season

History

Aston Martin first appeared in F1 in 1959 and 1960, failing to score a point under the system being used at the time, before exiting the sport and not returning until the manufacturer struck up a sponsorship arrangement with Red Bull Racing from 2016-2020.

As for the F1 entry Aston Martin effectively took over in 2021, its history goes all the way back to Jordan Grand Prix’s arrival in 1991 – the plucky, underdog team who gave Michael Schumacher his F1 debut and F1’s big-hitting outfits a run for their money.

With the squad’s form dipping and their finances dwindling, eponymous founder Eddie Jordan sold up to the Midland Group in 2005, followed by further buy-outs and rebrands from Dutch sportscar group Spyker and Indian businessman Vijay Mallya.

Mallya’s Force India operation competed from 2008 and went on to score six podium finishes and a pole position, but eventually entered administration in 2018 – after which a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll bought their assets and introduced the Racing Point name.

Stroll’s subsequent purchase of a stake in Aston Martin saw him combine both interests and, from the 2021 season, his team have been named after the famous British manufacturer in a full works effort.

Roy Salvadori, Aston Martin DBR5, Grand Prix of Great Britain, Silverstone Circuit, 16 July 1960. — Aston Martin originally appeared in F1 in the late-1950s and early-1960s

Greatest achievement

With little to shout about from that first F1 stint and only a few seasons to look back on since making a comeback, Aston Martin’s obvious highlight so far is their stunning start in 2023 with two-time champion Alonso.

The Spaniard reached the podium at six of the opening eight races and came close to winning amid changeable weather conditions in Monaco, before mid-season updates failed to hit the mark and rival teams edged ahead.

Alonso and Aston Martin were frequent visitors to the podium in 2023

One key goal for 2025

Before pondering targets for the upcoming season, it’s important to run through the various changes that have taken place at Aston Martin over the winter – headlined by Cowell becoming Team Principal and a shift toward a flatter structure.

Both the trackside group – now headed up by former team boss Krack – and the factory-based workforce – led by new Chief Technical Officer Enrico Cardile after Dan Fallows stepped back as Technical Director – will report into Cowell, who has vast experience as Mercedes’ former engine guru to draw upon.

Having failed to do so last year, a simple view of success for Aston Martin this time out would be seeing them close in on the front-running pack, return to the podium, cause the odd upset and rebuild some of the momentum that has been lost.

However, 2025 also serves as an opportunity to steal a march on their rivals by ploughing efforts into 2026, when all-new regulations and Aston Martin’s partnership with Honda come into play – especially given Adrian Newey’s impending arrival and the direct impact he can have on their next challenger.

Whichever way Aston Martin choose to balance this, with compromise likely to be a key word up and down the grid, the priorities have to be for the new Cowell-led structure to bed in effectively, both the trackside and factory teams to sing from the same hymn sheet, and any updates to have a positive impact on the car.