What is on Newey’s to do list on his Aston Martin arrival

The walls of Adrian Newey’s office have already been painted, Andy Cowell revealed during testing in Bahrain. It refers to an anecdote from Newey’s time at McLaren, when the designer added more colour to his office, leaving Ron Dennis utterly speechless, as the team boss was used to everything grey. “Ron turned purple,” Newey joked at the time.

At Aston Martin, the colour of his design office won’t be a talking point. Cowell confirmed that the office is ready for Newey to move in. “The drawing board is there,” the Aston Martin CEO and team principal added.

Newey officially starts at Aston Martin today after his period of gardening leave has ended. On 1 May 2024, Red Bull announced what had been known for weeks: Newey was leaving the team that he helped secure six constructors’ championships and eight drivers’ championships. A few months later, on 10 September, the announcement followed that Aston Martin would become Newey’s next destination in Formula 1.

What structure awaits Newey at Aston Martin?

Between Newey’s announcement and his actual starting date, several things have changed. Not only has Cowell taken on the dual role of team principal and CEO, but in November the team also communicated that Dan Fallows had been reassigned to a different role. Fallows, who had previously worked with Newey at Red Bull, served as Aston Martin’s technical director but has been moved to “another role within the Aston Martin Group”.

This opened the door for a new technical leadership duo: Enrico Cardile, who joins from Ferrari, and Newey. Cardile has officially been appointed as chief technical officer and “will oversee the architecture, design, and build of the new cars,” according to the team. Newey’s official title is “Managing Technical Partner,” alongside becoming a co-shareholder of the Silverstone-based team.

Dual technical leadership is nothing new and is how Newey operated at Red Bull as well. There, Pierre Wache managed the daily operations as technical director, while Newey looked at the bigger picture. Wache explained this division of roles in a recent interview: “He was not involved in the process on a daily basis but approached things more from the sidelines and constantly challenged us. That was very useful and happened in various ways, from mechanics to aerodynamics. He looked over our shoulders and asked, ‘Have you thought about this and have you thought about that?’ That feedback was extremely valuable to us.”

The working method with Wache handling day-to-day operations and Newey overseeing the bigger technical picture has proven successful, especially under the regulations that were introduced in 2022.

With Cardile and Newey, Aston Martin can count on two heavyweights as technical leaders, but a crucial question remains: when will Cardile actually start? In July 2024, Ferrari announced his departure, but the duration of his gardening leave was not specified. Aston Martin did not disclose this information in its announcement either, nor when Cowell was explicitly asked about it during winter testing in Bahrain: “We’re looking forward to having a thousand people working well together. We’re looking forward to Adrian joining. We’re looking forward to the dozens of new starters that we have every month. I think it was 248 through the 2024 calendar year.”

When asked a second time about Cardile’s start date, Cowell laughed and responded: “Does anyone else have a question?” A third attempt was equally unsuccessful, indicating that Aston Martin simply doesn’t want to (or perhaps cannot) reveal anything about it yet: “There’s a big group of people already working on the 2026 car, pushing forwards. And as we add more people in, we get stronger. Increased capacity and increased experience just help to push us forwards.”

As a result, there are still some question marks surrounding the division of roles in Newey’s first weeks. The long-term plan with Cardile and Newey as the two technical leaders seems clear, but with the signing from Ferrari not yet there, the situation remains uncertain.

What challenges await Newey at Aston Martin?

Just as important as the structure is the question of what Newey will focus on at Aston Martin and what the main challenges are. When the signing was announced, the team acknowledged that his arrival was too late to shape the 2025 car but in time to improve it throughout the season, but more importantly, in time for the new regulations, which Aston Martin and owner Lawrence Stroll have pinned all their hopes on. With Newey onboard and Honda as the engine supplier, effectively making it a factory team, all the pieces need to come together to take a major step forward in 2026.

“Everybody’s super excited to work with Adrian. His record speaks for itself,” Cowell said. “We’re looking forward to welcoming him on site, doing an induction for a new employee. It might be a little bit different than a normal one, introducing him to the key technical players within our business and showing him the business tools for engineering the car. And then getting stuck into creating the 2026 car and helping the improvements on 2025.”

The order of Cowell’s words highlights where the priority lies. Due to the gap between the top four teams and the rest, and because of the opportunities that the new regulations offer, Aston Martin is expected to shift its focus to 2026 early. The fact that Newey is starting now is particularly crucial, as most teams have already begun concept work for next year.

Adrian Newey, Managing Technical Partner, Aston Martin F1 Team, Lawrence Stroll, Owner, Aston Martin F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Cowell explains that Aston Martin’s concept department is already focused on next year: “That’s a huge topic for all 10 teams. For us, there are areas of our business that are already 100% focused on 2026. Concept engineering groups are fully focused on 2026 because 2025 is done from their perspective.” This refers to the overall concept of the car, an area where Newey’s expertise could be an invaluable contribution. In that sense, his first few months are crucially important in laying the foundations for 2026.

The balancing act between 2025 and 2026

While Newey is expected to influence both the 2025 and 2026 projects, it is interesting that Aston Martin wants to separate the two as much as possible according to Cowell, preferring not to have team members working on both projects simultaneously. He said: “I’ve always found that if you have an engineer thinking about today and 12 months’ time, it’s always today that you focus on. It’s about four in the afternoon that you start thinking about the next year and your brain is a bit tired by then, or mine is.

“For us, compared with Ferrari, we’re a young team. We’re a young and growing team. Yes, we’ve got a great new factory. We’ve got some great infrastructure but we’re still learning how to bring all of that together. We’re still dialling that in. It’s important to us that we get the quality of the experiments that we do within that infrastructure to be top draw. That’s a big focus for us.”

All factors – Newey, Honda and the new facilities – must come together in the 2026 car. Cowell has already made it clear that designing it will bring many challenges, not least due to the switch in engine supplier.

“We’re transitioning from being a customer team this year with Mercedes to a works team with Honda,” Cowell explained. “Besides that, we will be creating our own transmission, rear wishbones and so on. So it is a step up for us. It’s a challenging job list in front of us over the next 12 months.”

All these aspects are naturally connected to the aerodynamics and mechanics of the 2026 car, making one thing clear: from today, Newey will have plenty to keep him busy in his state-of-the-art office, including the old school drawing board.