Will Newey’s Aston Martin contract be announced in September?

The Italian magazine Autosprint today dedicated two articles to Adrian Newey and the next chapter in the career of the famous racing car designer. And this chapter will not be related to Ferrari.

According to the publication, Piero Ferrari personally began negotiations with Newey over a year ago, after which they had several meetings, including during the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. At the same time, Newey, together with Eddie Jordan, his long-time friend and manager, negotiated with other teams, in particular with McLaren, Williams and Aston Martin.

And then, according to Autosprint, the following happened: Ferrari invited Newey to put his wishes in writing. Since one of the principles of the Ferrari company can be formulated as ‘we do not stand behind the price’, Maranello was ready for the financial demands of the aerodynamic genius.

The problem was that Newey wanted the power to influence decisions that had always been within the team manager’s purview, including the requirement that he have a veto that would cover multiple areas. We’re talking about hiring new engineers, dividing responsibilities between specialists, signing contracts with technology partners, etc.

Of course, Frederic Vasseur had his say here, who could not agree with this approach. In general, a new attempt to invite Adrian Newey to work at Ferrari was not successful – there had already been three or four such attempts in the past decades.

Newey then opted for Aston Martin and his contract with Lawrence Stroll’s team will be announced in September, as certain contractual obligations with Red Bull are in effect until the end of August, which makes it impossible to share this kind of information. The Italian publication writes very specifically about this, but does not cite any sources.

All the necessary agreements would have been reached a few months ago. In addition, Newey was convinced by a very specific and detailed business plan, supported by billions of dollars in investments: the famous designer believed that the Silverstone team could enter into a dispute over victories in races and championships in the medium term. In addition, at Aston Martin he will have the right to influence the personnel policy and to invite the specialists he deems necessary.

It is also important that Newey believes in Honda’s ability to develop a competitive next-generation powertrain by 2026. Aston Martin will get Japanese engines under exclusive agreements. And Saudi oil giant Aramco will provide the team not only economic support but also the necessary technical support regarding the development and production of synthetic fuel.