Aston Martin’s decision to reveal renders of their latest challenger, rather than present us with images of the physical car, was always going to result in some of the AMR25’s features being noticed at a later date.

However, one of those features has been quite quickly noted, as the team have decided to add some small intakes alongside the halo.

Nothing stays secret for long
The small vertical slit, which runs beside the cockpit, is in an area where the teams have started to introduce more complex winglets over the last couple of seasons, in order to help manage the losses accrued and improve the flow downstream.

Aston Martin aren’t exempt when it comes to this either, as they’d run a looped-style winglet here in 2024 before making the shift to the Cobra-style winglet seen on the AMR25.

he region remains unpainted too, just as we find on the leading edge of most of the other aerodynamic surfaces, as it would appear the surface roughness that this provides offers a small but obviously meaningful contribution to its performance.

It’s unclear what these intakes might be helping to cool at this stage, although it’s likely that there’s a designated region under the AMR25’s where that airflow is being directed, with the cooling of electronic components the most likely recipient, given the amount of airflow being received won’t be hugely significant. Moreover, this is more about helping to clean up that region around the cockpit and halo and ties in with the arrival of the Cobra winglet and other geometrical alterations made to the halo fairing.

It’s also worth noting that whilst this solution is clearly different, not only due to the size but also locale, Aston Martin’s designers have most likely taken some inspiration from Red Bull who’ve had their semi-circular intakes placed alongside the halo since the Japanese Grand Prix, last season.