Aston Martin makes fabulous, powerful and luxurious road cars in both coupe and SUV form, but that’s not what made the news this week. The news happened at the level that represents the constructor in F1, which is a equipment Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team, the manufacturer’s official name for the team, is in the middle of the table and urgently wants to move to the front row of the starting grid. After raising the necessary funds to be able to fight for victory and a renowned driver like Fernando Alonso, the Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team, as the manufacturer’s F1 team is officially called, needed a top-level engineer to design the team’s next formula. And he managed to sign Adrian Newey.a 65-year-old Briton with a 44-year career.
Newey is the most revered – and most successful – coach in the highest discipline of motor racing. Their cars have already won 25 World Championships and 200 race victories and if in the last 18 years it has been thesenior technical officer from Red Bull, a team that catapulted itself from a equipment From mid-table to the most successful team of the last almost two decades, Adrian Newey decided to announce his departure from the Austrian team in May 2024. It is now known that he has signed for Aston Martin.
Also in the race to sign Newey were Ferrari, McLaren, Alpine and Williamsbut the English coach preferred Aston Martin, also a mid-table team, similar to what happened with Red Bull in 2006, when Adrian Newey began to design his formulas. In addition to challenge factorwhich the prestigious technician seems to like so much, must have played an important factor in the fact that Aston Martin offered the team the second position (as technical managing partner), reporting only to Lawrence Strollthe team’s constructor and manager. At the same time, the British brand offered him shares in the company and… a salary of 30 million pounds a year.
Start over and with Honda instead of Mercedes
Apart from the monetary aspect and not having to rely on a team principal like the controversial Christian Horner, who headed Red Bull, Newey has everything that motivates him. Apart from trying to improve the 2025 car, it will be above all Work is already underway on the 2026 car, which will be governed by the new technical regulations.which puts all teams on equal terms and at zero point of development.
At the same time, the engine regulations will also be changed, which will represent an additional challenge for Aston Martin, as its team will stop working with Mercedes and start collaborating with Hondawhich has been developing the new power unit for several months. And it is worth remembering that Newey and Honda have already been working together at Red Bull since 2021, which accelerates the optimization of the collaboration for 2026.
Aston Martin in F1 with new Honda engines
Those who did not appreciate Adrian Newey’s move to Aston Martin were Red Bull and, in particular, Horner, who could not resist criticising the announcement of the contract of his still chief engineer, although he had already announced in May that he would leave Red Bull at the end of the season, which ends on December 8 in Abu Dhabi. Red Bull even went so far as to say that Newey would stop working on F1 carsincluding the one that will allow Red Bull to lead the 2024 championship with Max Verstappen, so it is not surprising that Newey, now without ties to the F1 team where he worked for 18 years, felt free to announce his new job.
The reasons for this “heartburn” at Red Bull can be seen in part in relation to the departure of its technician, who designed the current car and was unceremoniously dismissed in May, barely revealing that he did not want to continue supporting Horner and his way of managing the team. The job left by Newey allowed the team to continue winning after the engineer’s departure in May, but the reality is that, Just a month later, Red Bull stopped winning And, until September, there were no major improvements…
Source: Observadora
