Aston Martin’s new chief technology officer Enrico Caldire says “failure is not an option” and promises success in 2026 when the team competes for the championship.
Cardill joined Aston Martin from Ferrari this year, working under team principal and CEO Andy Cowell and managing technical partner Adrian Newey to strengthen an already impressive engineering department. After significant investment in personnel and equipment, expectations are high for the start of new regulations, including a new Honda Works contract, and Kardir said he could only look ahead to next year.
“I’m excited,” Cardil said of his thoughts on 2026. “Definitely yes. It’s not just our car. I’m looking forward to seeing the other 10 cars, seeing everyone’s performance and seeing if we’re in a good position and need to keep pushing to keep the advantage, or if we need to keep pushing to catch up with the teams that are faster than us.”
“It will be exciting… but it’s still exciting. Nothing we do now will be enough because we don’t know where we’re going. We can’t be satisfied with the good results of a wind tunnel session or the success of a weight-loss exercise because we don’t have a baseline.
“That’s true at any time, but especially at the start of a new cycle. The last few seasons have allowed everyone to recognize the gaps and know what they need to achieve to be in a better position. Everything is up in the air for next year.”
“It’s going to be good next year. We don’t know if it’s going to be good in the first race, or the second, or the seventh, or whatever. What we have is commitment, focus and confidence that it’s going to work. We have everything we need to do a great job. We can’t afford to fail.”
Cardi, who spent his entire F1 career with Ferrari before agreeing to join Aston Martin a year ago, says emulating other teams is not the blueprint for a new career. Instead, he says Lawrence Stroll’s team needs to establish its own distinct identity.
“I think there are cultural differences,” he said. “The goal is the same and everyone is focused on winning, but the Ferrari F1 team has a very long and stable history and has established processes and tools.
“Here, we’re still building these things. We have a new CoreWeave Wind Tunnel and a new simulator, and we need to work to leverage those possibilities. We also need to build a lean organization and develop internal processes around how we work.”
“This was one of the first messages I gave my team when I started it: We need to find our identity and use our vision to shape the organization to work the way we want it to work. It’s okay to take inspiration from other places, but copying the way things have been done elsewhere is not the way to go.”
“We need to build on our strengths and build something that allows us to work on our weaknesses. We want to be the standard, not a copy of the existing standard. We can’t simply copy what others are doing. Even if they were doing it successfully, that would mean being a follower rather than a leader, and that is not the path to success.
“This is a work in progress that is moving forward step by step. I have a clear vision and a clear plan for what we need to do to improve the organization, which I have agreed with Andy Cowell, Adrian Newey and Lawrence.”
