Aston Martin’s fall from grace has been a lesson for other F1 teams. During the 2023 season, it earned the title of the ‘dark horse’ because of a series of brilliant results in the beginning. In fact, Fernando Alonso‘s regular podium finishes ensured that AMR was Red Bull’s closest rival till the ’23 summer break. But luck has not yet shone on the team this year as it is currently down in the fifth spot of the Championship Standings. According to the Silverstone team’s boss Mike Crack, this form is all because of the failure of AMR’s recent upgrades.

Aston Martin boss Lawrence Stroll is currently fighting tooth and nail to hire Adrian Newey right now. The aero-wizard has already announced he will exit Red Bull in the next year. But attracting a heavyweight official like Newey might be a problem if Aston Martin does not improve its performance soon. For this reason, Mike Crack wants to do a complete reset. According to him, a change in the team’s technical course in 2024 is the only solution as its upgrades have not worked on the AMR24 till now.

As of now, the gap between Aston Martin in P5 and Mercedes in P4 is 193 Championship points. This points to the stark difference in the performance of the AMR racecar in comparison with that of the top 4 teams in F1 right now. Scrutinizing the steps his team has taken till now, Mike Crack said to Motorsport, “When we started to develop the car, it just went in the wrong direction. We did not manage to add performance with the update and the competition did.”

The 52-year-old then specified what he wanted to do about the error in Aston Martin’s approach. Crack further said, “If your [team] is not delivering what you expect and the others do – which I do not know, but I have to assume – you take a step backward. That’s the harsh reality of Formula 1. So, what we have decided is to take a little bit of a different approach because it has not delivered what we expected it to deliver, but it is more like a little restart and building on that restart. But I would say it’s rather a technical restart.” While Aston Martin is trying to take its technical game up, it is reportedly inching closer to a deal with Adrian Newey–but how?

Aston Martin might announce a deal with Adrian Newey soon

Ever since Newey announced his Red Bull exit, his future in F1 has been a topic of interest for the fans. Ferrari tried time and again to get a deal with the aero-wizard to form the ultimate dream duo of Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Newey. However, the Maranello outfit has apparently been beaten to the chase by Aston Martin. According to recent reports, Newey has already agreed to sign up with Lawrence Stroll‘s team but the official announcement has not come yet because he has some constraints with his Red Bull contract.

In fact, Aston Martin might also want to hire Max Verstappen once their Newey deal goes through. The Dutchman has stayed loyal to Red Bull ever since grabbing a seat at the Austrian outfit in 2018. But recently, the RB20 has been outperformed by McLaren’s MCL36 and Mercedes’ W15 on several occasions. This might lead to dissatisfaction for Verstappen and perhaps, AMR wants to capitalize on this opportunity.

If Aston Martin’s reported attempts at roping in the top two Red Bull officials–Adrian Newey and Max Verstappen, become successful, the F1 grid will look very different in the upcoming seasons. Do you think the Silverstone outfit might succeed in becoming the next Red Bull in Formula 1?