The Aston Martin AMR25 is one of the Formula 1 cars with the biggest weaknesses in the 2025 season – where the problems lie and how they can be reduced
Aston Martin is struggling to get going in the 2025 Formula 1 season: Fernando Alonso scored points for the first time this year at the last race in Barcelona. Team mate Lance Stroll was slightly more successful, but Aston Martin is only second from bottom in the Constructors’ Championship.
The AMR25 has an obvious weakness: Alonso has reached Q3 on Saturday three times this season, but only once has he finished in the points on Sunday. Stroll, who secured his only top 10 start at Imola, ultimately finished in 15th place.
This means that the AMR25 is strong in qualifying but falls back significantly in Sunday’s race. “We lacked top speed and lost a lot on the straights,” said Alonso in Barcelona. “I didn’t make a single overtaking maneuver with DRS.”
But the lack of top speed isn’t the only weakness of the AMR25! What has become clear in the meantime is that the car has a weak front end, meaning it understeers too much. At the same time, it also fails to manage the rear tires thermally efficiently.
High tire wear is another weakness
Added to this is a lack of aerodynamic efficiency, which hits Aston Martin twice: The car is slow on the straights, but the team can’t simply reduce downforce to go faster, as this would cause the car to slide more and tire wear would be even greater.
Especially since tire degradation is already considered a weakness of the AMR25. “In qualifying, you always have new tires. This masks a lot of problems, not just for us, but for all cars,” explains Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack. As the tires age, the weakness of the AMR25 becomes apparent.
One trick Aston Martin is using to try to compensate for this disadvantage is “scrubbing” the tires. This involves briefly bringing the tires up to temperature during practice and then cooling them down again. This heat cycle changes the viscoelastic properties of the rubber.
This is intended to make the tires less susceptible to graining and thermal degradation. Although the maximum grip is slightly lower, the period during which the tire performs close to its maximum performance is extended.
Aston Martin: Tire strategy is not the problem
Jun Matsuzaki, Aston Martin’s chief tire expert, has been considered a key figure in the team for many years. He was already on board during the Force India era, where he helped Sergio Perez become a veritable “tire whisperer.” Matsuzaki previously worked for Bridgestone.
He was also the first to recognize in 2013 that Pirelli’s rear tires lasted longer when mounted in the opposite direction to the intended direction of travel. It is therefore unlikely that Aston Martin’s performance deficit is due to a poor tire strategy at the track.
Rather, the cause lies in the mechanical construction and aerodynamic design of the AMR25. In any case, Alonso is confident that Aston Martin now has the problem under control: “I think we know what’s going on now…”
Will the updates finally have an effect soon?
Let’s just hope that the upcoming upgrades will have the desired effect. So far, the improvements have not brought the hoped-for performance gains, although the current AMR25 is still in the development phase under the previous technical leadership.
An update package was used for the first time in Imola, including a new underbody and revised bodywork design, which was developed entirely under the new team management. It was also the first package to be developed using the new wind tunnel.
Although this package was never expected to deliver half a second per lap, CEO and team principal Andy Cowell described the update as a kind of laboratory test to check the resilience of the new tools and processes. And that seems to have been successful, at least in part.
