Adrian Newey to keep 100% focus on 2026 Aston Martin F1 car

Aston Martin’s new managing technical partner, Adrian Newey, has hit the ground running, but he’s laser-focused on the 2026 car despite the team’s current on-track struggles. “100% of Adrian’s designing time is focused on 2026,” team boss Andy Cowell told reporters in Jeddah on Thursday, with new Formula 1 regulations coming up next year.

“He joined in March, so there was a period of him getting up to speed with the regulations, up to speed with the concept work that we’ve been doing in the preceding couple of months, and there are some tough deadlines to meet for releasing monocoque details and transmission details,” he added.

“So getting a car ready for [the test in January] requires slightly earlier decision points, and clearly everything’s new, there’s zero carryover. So there’s lots of work there and Adrian’s just been focused on that.”

When asked whether Newey had provided any insight into possible design flaws on the 2025 car, Cowell said he had only offered broad feedback.

“[His thoughts] are focused largely on the tools that we’re using rather than any direct performance aspects of the 25 car,” he explained. “But there is value in Adrian understanding the tools that we’ve got, the fidelity of those tools, and the precision with which they predict what’s going to happen on the racetrack.”

The longtime Red Bull design chief has been impressed by Aston Martin’s state-of-the-art facilities, including their brand-new wind tunnel.

“Adrian’s been hugely complimentary about the campus and has been positive about the tunnel that we’ve got and the way that everything’s been set up,” Cowell said. “He is, of course, pushing for us to improve the way we operate in the tunnel… He’s got thoughts on how to improve pretty much everything, and that’s the great thing about Adrian’s competitive drive.”