0
David Coulthard has predicted Aston Martin will win Grands Prix within two years, despite the British team enduring one of the worst opening halves of a season in recent memory. The former Red Bull and McLaren driver told the Up To Speed podcast that upgrades introduced at the Hungarian Grand Prix, combined with a new Honda power unit coming after the summer break, mark the beginning of a turnaround that will make Aston Martin the grid's biggest improver. His forecast comes against a backdrop of widespread scepticism about a team that arrived at the season with Adrian Newey and Honda power, yet has barely managed to finish races.
From podium outsiders to grid stragglers
Aston Martin entered 2025 with legitimate ambitions. The combination of Newey, who joined the team as chief technical officer, and a works Honda partnership appeared on paper to position the Silverstone-based outfit as potential podium contenders. Instead, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso have struggled to complete race distances, hampered by reliability issues and a fundamentally flawed car concept. Alonso's single point, scored at Monaco, came in a race defined more by penalties than performance. Coulthard was blunt in his assessment of that result.
"That one point you're talking about came from Fernando in Monaco, in a race where I think more penalties were handed out than there were drivers," Coulthard said. "That was a shock, wasn't it?"
A performance deficit measured in seconds
Coulthard acknowledged the scale of Aston Martin's problems, describing the team as "really, really bad" over the first half of the season. He attributed roughly one second of the performance gap to the Honda power unit and several more seconds to the chassis itself. That puts Aston Martin's deficit in the region of three to four seconds per lap at certain circuits, a gap so wide it has left them as the slowest team by a considerable margin. Hungary, however, offered the first glimpse of a potential recovery.
The updates introduced at the Hungaroring appeared to address some of the fundamental aerodynamic issues that have plagued the car since pre-season testing. While neither driver finished in the points, both reported improved driveability and balance. Honda's revised power unit, expected to debut after the summer shutdown, is also projected to claw back a significant portion of the engine-related deficit. Whether that will be enough to lift Aston Martin into midfield contention remains uncertain, but Coulthard believes the trajectory is clear.
Biggest improvers on the grid
"Believe me, they will be the team that makes the biggest progress over the next two years," Coulthard said. "I predict that within the next two years, they will win Grands Prix." It is a bold claim for a team that has yet to demonstrate consistent race pace in 2025, but Coulthard's confidence rests on the infrastructure Aston Martin has assembled. Newey's influence on the 2026 car, designed under the new technical regulations, will be far more pronounced than on this year's troubled machine. Honda's commitment to the partnership, underlined by ongoing engine development, provides a platform that few midfield teams can match.
Whether Aston Martin can bridge the gap to the front of the grid within two years will depend on their ability to translate resources and personnel into performance. The first half of 2025 has been a humbling reminder that signing star names does not guarantee results. The updates in Hungary and the incoming Honda power unit offer a starting point, but the road from worst on the grid to race-winning form is long. Coulthard is betting they will make it.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
I. Hadjar
A. Antonelli
C. Leclerc
2 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (0)
Login to reply