Newey: No one has ever offered me to become a shareholder before

Today, the Aston Martin team officially announced a long-term contract with Adrian Newey, and at a press conference at Silverstone, the famous race designer spoke about the reasons for his decision.

Q: What was the main reason you decided to join Aston Martin, given that you had other options?
Adrian Newey: It’s simple: Lawrence Stroll! (laughs) But seriously, I think I needed a new challenge. So at the end of April I decided I needed to do something different. My wife and I spent a lot of time discussing all this: “What’s in store for us in the next phase of our lives? What to do? Maybe take a trip around the world on a yacht?..”

We thought about it for a while and I believed that I was lucky to achieve a lot in the profession that I had dreamed of since I was ten or twelve, because I just wanted to be a race car designer, I didn’t even want to use the word “engineer”.

And I can honestly say that everything else was a bonus, because right after university my dream came true. Of course I never expected to be so lucky, but you always have to be honest with yourself. In general I felt like a new challenge was needed, so I decided to take a short break.

Lawrence and I have known each other for a long time and have met periodically for a number of years. For example, it has happened more than once that such meetings have taken place in gyms, especially when the races are somewhere in the Middle East or Asia.

When I announced to everyone that I was leaving my previous team, I was generally very flattered that I received many offers from different teams. But I was attracted by Lawrence’s passion, determination and enthusiasm. Everything he said sounded very convincing.

The thing is, if you go back about twenty years, the people we now call team managers were actually team owners – think Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Eddie Jordan and others.

Nowadays Lawrence has actually become a unique example, because he is the only owner of the team who is really active. And when someone like him is involved in a project, it makes a special impression in my opinion.

This is similar to the old traditions of Formula 1, and besides, no one has ever offered me to become a shareholder and partner of the team before. And this is a slightly different situation, which I find very attractive. That’s why my choice was completely natural.

Q: There will be very serious changes to the technical regulations in 2026: what are your thoughts on it now, having tried on the Aston Martin uniform?
Adrian Newey: The new power unit has been in the works for a while now and the Honda engineers are obviously working hard to create it. It has been a real pleasure to work with them at Red Bull for the last six years. They are very good people and easy and pleasant to work with.

If we talk about the chassis, the aerodynamic regulations will be published in early January, and I will start working two months after that. Of course, I will try to get back to work as soon as possible. It will be equally important to get to know all the employees, understand how to interact with each one in the right way and try to create the most efficient work process together. This is the most important thing.

Of course, the transition to new technical regulations offers opportunities, but will we be able to benefit from them or not? We do not know yet.

Q: What are the main challenges you foresee? Where will you focus your efforts first?
Adrian Newey: All Formula 1 teams are organised in the same way, they all have three engineering departments: the aerodynamics department, the department that designs the chassis and the vehicle dynamics department, which is responsible for the performance of the car as a whole.

The goal is to achieve a synergistic effect by combining the efforts of these three departments, as well as the Honda mechanics who work on the power plant. Incidentally, chassis developers and mechanics will now have to work together more actively than ever.

Q: 2026 is still a long way off, but you will probably also try to influence the development of the car for next season in some way? What could this look like?
Adrian Newey: To be honest, I don’t know yet, and there’s no point in making predictions. Obviously, we want the 2025 season to be successful for the team, but for me the most important thing now is to work with everyone and understand how we can all work together to make sure everyone is working at maximum efficiency.

This is the key moment now. Everything else will gradually take shape by itself.

Q: What can you say about your relationship with the team drivers, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll?
Adrian Newey: I have known Lance for a long time, since Formula 3, because he raced there at the same time as my son Harry, and with Fernando we have of course raced on the circuits for so many years, and sometimes he was our biggest rival. Red Bull was about to sign a contract with him for 2009, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. He is a famous racer and I am already looking forward to working with him.