What we’ve learned after Adrian Newey’s move to Aston Martin

Adrian Newey is reportedly going to be earning up to £30million per year when he joins his new team on 1^st March as a shareholder and Technical Managing Partner, which will make him one of Britain’s highest paid sporting figures. He’ll become a higher earner than the likes of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, which highlights just how valuable his services are perceived to be.

During the announcement press conference Stroll even suggested that he considered the price to be a bargain, he said Newey was the best partner he could possibly bring into the company. While Newey will, of course, be primarily recognised for his work at the drawing board, it’s clear that he will also be instrumental in shaping the technical team and managing the development of Aston Martin’s cars from the very top.

He's been heralded as the final and largest piece of the puzzle that will see Aston Martin become a championship-winning team. He’ll settle into a brand-new state of the art factory with world-leading facilities including a new wind tunnel. He says that Aston’s new HQ is one of the main reasons why he will wear green in 2025.

The biggest reason, he said, was Mr Stroll himself, the man Newey has called the only exponent of the old-school team owner model. While the likes of Red Bull’s and McLaren’s ownership take a back seat from the day to day running of their teams, Stroll chooses instead to get his hands dirty and invest his own time in getting his team to the front of the grid. Newey said that Stroll’s passion and drive for success made his decision to join Aston Martin an easy one.

Will Aston Martin win a world championship?

But will all of this be enough to turn Aston into title winners? It would certainly seem as though the foundations are now firmly in place. There’s clearly no shortage of funding, the infrastructure is second to none, and the personnel is now the envy of the paddock. Is there anything left to stand in their way?

All fortunes in F1 will be subject to the new regulations due to be published on 1^st January 2025. Every team will then be working from a clean slate and developing brand new cars from the ground up with new engines, new fuel and new aerodynamics. Adrian Newey is by now well used to navigating F1 rule changes, and almost every time he has been met with a regulation shake-up, he has delivered the fastest car on the grid.

In 1998, the McLaren MP4/13 was the dominant car as McLaren won both championships. In 2009, although Newey overlooked the double diffuser, his interpretation of the regulations meant that by the time Red Bull incorporated its own diffuser, the RB5 was the car to beat by the end of the season. Evolutions of that initial design yielded four consecutive championship doubles.

Renault’s underperforming engine stifled performance for the following five years, but Newey again worked his magic in 2022 to deliver one of the most dominant eras in F1 history with the RB18 and RB19.

It would appear the legendary designer is getting better with experience, and we’re already getting excited for the unveiling of the AMR26 in 18 months’ time. That, realistically will be our first indication of whether the Stroll plan is working. Will it be as simple as getting the pencil that drew the RB18 to start working on an Aston Martin car?

It won’t all be down to Newey of course, he’s set to be reunited with his old Red Bull playmate Dan Fallows, an aerodynamics wizard in his own right, who will also have a substantial part to play in the future success of the team.

Will Fernando Alonso finally become a three-time champion?

Max Verstappen has proven in recent years that a good car isn’t the only thing that can win a championship – you need a driver at the wheel that can deliver the speed. Fernando Alonso, even at the age of 43, has proven he still has the motivation and the ability to win races with the right equipment. He made the absolute most of his opportunity when Aston Martin briefly had the second quickest car on the grid in 2022, scoring six podiums in eight races, reminding everyone that his status as ‘only’ a two-time world champion is a horrible injustice.

With the right car, there is absolutely no doubt that Alonso will become a three-time world champion. Certainly, if it comes down to who’s quicker out of him and Lance Stroll, the Spaniard has had the beating of his team-mate since day one.

You can tell already that Alonso has his sights set on maximising that opportunity should it arrive, both he and Newey are clearly relishing the opportunity to work together.

Will Red Bull fall back into the midfield?

Aston Martin’s gain with absolutely be Red Bull’s loss. It is no secret that the team’s initial run of dominance was built on foundations laid by Adrian Newey, his designs were a crucial element in Sebastian Vettel’s four world championships.

While even Newey couldn’t find a way to overcome the deficit of Renault’s powertrain, his magic shone through yet again in 2022, even if Christian Horner in recent years has sought to play down the role of his most prized asset.

There is no doubt Red Bull’s design team will feel the effect of Newey’s departure; can it be purely coincidence that the car has suffered a marked drop in performance since Newey’s decision to leave? Probably, but it’s not a great omen, and the team is about to embark on its first major regulation change without their former Chief Technical Officer at the helm.

Red Bull will not disappear overnight, but we are not far away from finding out for definite just how instrumental Adrian Newey has been in the team’s success.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.