“Surprise?!”
Working for a global Motorsport company is a lot of fun. Even more so when it’s all hands to the pump for a story Jeremy Clarkson correctly called back on the Silverstone grid in June!
But yes, F1’s worst-kept secret was finally revealed in all its glory yesterday as Adrian Newey was announced to be joining Aston Martin in March 2025 on a three-year deal when his gardening leave with Red Bull ends. For those not sure about some of the details – It’s a three-year deal as “Managing Technical Director” (It rolls right off the tongue), he’s also now a shareholder in the company, and if the rumours are to be believed, it’s a deal that could be worth up to £30m a year. Which I think would make him the most-paid non-athlete in all of sports. As Craig Slater repeated on Sky Sports F1, Pep Guardiola isn’t making that kind of bread at Man City.
Look, if you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already gone through half a dozen Newey-related articles, I get you’re on a tight schedule. So let me cut to the chase and tell you what I make of it all now we know for sure this is happening.
The reasoning is obvious – Lawrence Stroll made Newey an offer he couldn’t refuse, and far greater than Ferrari was prepared to pony up. Aston Martin’s package was enormous and exactly what Newey wanted. Beyond the hard cash, an investment into a team he can directly influence to be on the rise, potentially. Seemingly, what impressed Newey most was the old-school, more direct approach that Stroll has at Aston compared to other owners, reminding him of his younger F1 days with Leyton House, Williams and McLaren, where falling out with the senior management was common.
Beyond the new facilities and the tech, hubs that encouraged creativity, something Newey’s always wanted to explore, like the Aston Martin Valkyrie and his America’s Cup bid. There could be potential for Newey to complete the Triple Crown having already won the Indy 500 with Danny Sullivan in his March days.
On paper, this is a game changer, it goes without saying – It’s Adrian Newey. He’s won everywhere he’s been 220 wins. 12 Constructors titles and just as many with drivers. He’s arguably the greatest engineer in F1 history, and just his presence alone is going to be a huge shot in the arm for a team, who let’s be honest, have been all flash and little fire since the rebrand.
Yes, 2023 started wonderfully, but since Brazil last year, the good times have dried up. Fernando Alonso has looked demotivated in a car stuck in the midfield that’s been passed by the big hitters catching up around them. And for me, he’s part of the problems that Newey may face going forward.
We have to talk about the drivers here. I know part of the deal with Newey was wanting to work with “arch-rivals” Alonso or Hamilton, but 2026 will be Alonso’s Age 45 season, the first of its kind in F1 since Graham Hill. Unless the 2026 car out of the box is on Red Bull 2023 levels of dominance, is it realistic to think Alonso is still good enough to win a title with a fleet of younger drivers entering their primes (Russell, Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, who knows beyond that?). You’ve got to be thinking medium-term. I know Verstappen’s name has been floated around, but I suspect a lot of that will boil down to life post-Newey at Red Bull and whether they can still produce winning cars. Losing Wheatley, Newey and Marshall might be too much for that winning structure.
The maple-leaved elephant in the room is there too. Is Lance Stroll good enough to justify his seat if Aston Martin is truly competitive? He failed that test in 2023 when Alonso was challenging for wins. He’s been better relatively this year, but if Lawrence Stroll is serious about winning at all costs, the multi-million dollar question remains – Is he prepared to drop his son if it gets him over the line? While I try hard not to make the obvious nepo-baby jokes, he might be the biggest bottleneck left at Aston and there are no excuses left for him at this point.
And I do wonder, what’s Newey’s technical infrastructure going to look like? All of a sudden, Aston’s technical department is stacked – Dan Fallows is still there and the big catalyst from Red Bull who knows how Newey operates. You poached Enrico Cardile from Ferrari and Andy Cowell from Mercedes, big technical hitters with heavyweight resumes in their own right, how will they all be able to co-exist?
We’ve seen McLaren struggle to handle having too many eggs in their technical basket, with dangerous results (Even if they finally seem to have got it right this year, they’ve had more reshuffles than I’ve had hot dinners.). Is this going to be a cohesive engineering unit, or is it Lawrence Stroll chasing the shiny hood ornaments?
Newey’s arrival on paper is brilliant for Aston Martin, but it only adds even more questions and expectations, given we’ve already seen a teaser of what this team can do in the right hands. We’re about to see hiring just one man can be that much of a difference maker to not one, but two organisations in F1’s paddock. But at this point, anything less than title contention by 2027 is going to be deemed a failure. Let’s see what Aston Martin’s third chapter cooks up.
