The first impressions of Adrian Newey-designed Aston Martin F1 car

Lance Stroll has shared his first impressions after getting to debut Aston Martin’s much-anticipated 2026 F1 car.

The first Aston Martin to be produced by legendary designer Adrian Newey finally broke cover for the final hour of running during F1’s behind closed doors shakedown test at Barcelona on Thursday.

Stroll completed four slow laps in the Honda-powered AMR26 before causing a late red flag when he stopped on track.

“It felt good,” Stroll said after driving Aston Martin’s 2026 machine. “Nice to be back in the car after a few weeks off.

“Everyone did a good job getting the car ready. It was a long day for all the mechanics and everyone in the team, pushing flat-out to get the car ready.

“We got a few laps in at the end of the day, and it was feeling good.”

The AMR26 has caused quite the stir after making a delayed first on-track appearance at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Aston Martin’s brand new challenger finally emerged sporting an all-black camouflage livery, but the first images of the AMR26 revealed distinctive nose, sidepod and engine cover designs that differ greatly from what has appeared on rival cars.

Fernando Alonso got his first taste of Newey’s bold AMR26 car on Friday.

Aston Martin overcame “huge changes”

Reflecting on Aston Martin’s late arrival in Barcelona, chief trackside engineer Mike Krack said: “We obviously are in a bit of a unique situation. We welcome Honda, our new power unit partner, we have made our first gearbox in many, many years, and you pair that with new chassis regulations, new power unit regulations.

“So, basically, you could say it’s the worst case or the best case, but it’s a huge change for us as a team, to be a works team, a factory team, together with these regulations. Then we have Adrian on board, so it’s all very exciting, and a lot of change.

“F1 is not waiting for you, so you have to be ready. We were now a little bit late, but we made it to this test, so I think we can be proud and happy of that achievement.

“It’s still fresh [with Honda], obviously, and also when you have such a long relationship with the previous partner, you need to know the people, you need to learn the names, how you work with each other, what are your expectations, what are the responsibilities, all these kind of things.

“But it was a good start, a few smiles between ourselves and them. It’s our goal, obviously, to use this time now to integrate as much as we can, to learn how to work together. I’m very confident. They are racers, they are very open, you can challenge them. It’s really nice and I’m looking forward to continuing that relationship.”