Adrian Newey’s authorial hand has steered the design of cars which have won 14 Formula 1 drivers’ championships, and many more which came tantalisingly close to doing so.
Last year he added the role of team principal to his portfolio at Aston Martin, just a handful of months after joining the team as ‘managing technical partner’ – a position which gave him equity in the organisation.
Little wonder, then, that his movements have become the subject of fevered interest.
Newey hasn’t been seen in the F1 paddock since discharging his first official duties as team principal at the 2026 season-opening Australian GP – during which, over the course of two press conferences, he made a number of explosive revelations about the development status of Aston Martin’s Honda engine. Since then it’s understood that he has chosen to remain at the factory, devoting all his energies to debugging the troubled AMR26.
It has been widely rumoured in the paddock that he has been suffering a stress-related illness, and the Daily Mail reported he had been hospitalised with pneumonia, to which the team’s response was, “We do not comment on personal matters relating to our team members.”
But it is understood Newey will attend the Monaco GP this weekend and is expected to arrive on Thursday evening.
“I think we’ll see him this weekend,” said chief trackside officer Mike Krack in his regular pre-weekend media briefing. “So it’s good, because he has a lot of experience here. Many race wins here, so I think there is certainly one or the other advice that we can get that will bring us forward. So we’re looking forward to that.”
Aston Martin said at the beginning of the season that Newey would not attend all the races, and that the trackside duties of the team principal would be discharged by others – chiefly Krack, who has previously held that role.
Adrian Newey, Aston Martin Racing Team Principal
Photo by: Mario Renzi / Formula 1 via Getty Images
Rumours persist that Jonathan Wheatley, the long-time Red Bull sporting director who moved to Audi as team principal last season before abruptly departing ahead of this year’s Japanese GP, is in the frame for the job.
Sporadic grand prix attendance is fully in keeping with Newey’s policy over the past few seasons after he handed in his notice at Red Bull. Last year Monaco was one of the few rounds he visited in person.
The Monaco GP is one of the easiest events to attend since the nearby Nice airport has a dedicated private aviation terminal and direct helicopter transfers to Monaco.
Newey’s reappearance will not coincide with major technical upgrades to the car, which the team has pushed back until the summer. Instead it will have to focus on optimising what it has and adapting to the unique challenges of Monaco: bumps and the close proximity of the barriers.
Driver confidence and focus is key here and, since the Miami GP, Honda has been focusing on the driveability of its engine – which, together with the shift quality of Aston Martin’s in-house gearbox, is a long-standing bugbear.
Chief engineer Shintaro Orihara confirmed in Monaco that this remains a work in progress: “Driveability-wise, we have done some testing on the dyno to improve our torque accuracy.
“There are some improvement points and we found some positive signals in Canada, but also still we found room we can improve for Monaco. So we’ve been in Sakura [Honda’s R&D base] on the dyno to find a way to improve our torque delivery accuracy.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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