Adrian Newey made a rare appearance trackside during the British Grand Prix Formula 1 weekend. Apart from a visit to Monaco in May (and a cameo at the Goodwood Festival of Speed) he has been sequestered within Aston Martin’s ‘campus’ near Silverstone since he started at the team in March.
But while Newey was present on the British GP grid with his sketchbook – despite overseeing 12 constructors’ championship-winning cars since 1992, he has never been too proud to learn from others’ ideas – he will continue to focus on developing Aston Martin’s response to the 2026 technical reset rather than being drawn into solving problems with the current car.
“He’s working, he’s involved,” Fernando Alonso told Spanish broadcaster DAZN at Silverstone.
“He’s very motivated. But it’s true that this year’s car doesn’t seem to interest him much.
“Every time we ask something about this year or how to improve something, he gets up and goes to another office. So he’s already in 2026 mode…”
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing, Adrian Newey, Managing Technical Partner of Aston Martin F1 Team
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images via Getty Images
Although Alonso was being somewhat flippant, Newey has traditionally resisted becoming involved in development of an inherited project when moving teams. His first Williams, the FW14, had more in common aerodynamically with his previous design (the Leyton House CG901) than the FW13 it replaced; at McLaren he got straight into conceptual work for the 1998 narrow-track ruleset while still on gardening leave, having as little involvement as possible with the ’97 car; at Red Bull he almost entirely swerved the wretched RB2.
“I spent some time trying to understand the RB2,” he told this author, with a barely suppressed eye roll, in a contemporary interview. [ https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/what-newey-expected-when-he-first-joined-red-bull/10607864/ ] As surely as eggs don’t bounce, a “but” followed: reshaping the malfunctioning technical department he’d inherited from Jaguar Racing took priority over silk-pursificating the car it had produced.
And this is the policy to which Newey is adhering at Aston Martin, while phrasing his observations more diplomatically – in public, at least, though he has spoken of the development ‘tools’ being “weak”.
The challenge is to transact this reconstruction phase while managing expectations in the interim. Team owner Lawrence Stroll is notoriously impatient, as evinced by excoriating ‘roastings’ in the factory on the Monday following an unsuccessful weekend – of which there have been rather too many of late. Alonso, now into his 40s and painfully aware of the passage of time, is also in a hurry to get in a quick car again.
Lance Stroll gives the outward impression of being manifestly disengaged, and yet talk of behind-the-scenes tantrums suggests he does have an interest in development taking a turn for the better.
CEO and team principal Andy Cowell must therefore follow a pragmatic and delicately balanced route through this season, enabling Newey to reshape the technical organisation to his liking and keep his head in the 2026 game while also giving some impression of forward momentum with the current project. A new floor applied to the AMR25 in Imola was said to have had a noticeably positive effect, while further revisions to that floor – including new ‘fences’ – at Silverstone were in close-but-no-cigar territory.
“I think it’s a step forward – the car felt a bit better,” said Alonso.
“The data showed that in some parts of the track there’s improvement; in others it’s harder to see. So, let’s say it’s a very small upgrade package, but it’s always welcome.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Erik Junius
“The way the grid is right now – with five or six cars within two tenths – a tenth or even half a tenth is valuable. It also shows that the team keeps pushing.
“We’re not content being stuck in the midfield. We want to be as close as possible to the top teams by the end of the year.”
If the trajectory doesn’t seem to be heading towards that vaguely expressed position in the upper midfield, will Stroll Sr start thumping desks and demanding Newey get involved? Maybe, but Adrian will resist all the way.
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