Adrian Newey has admitted he has been in a sort of “design trance” since joining Aston Martin as managing technical partner as he focuses on the 2026 F1 regulations.
Aston Martin secured Newey’s services from Red Bull last year and the legendary designer started working with his new team from early March 2025. Newey said he is focused on the opportunities presented by the new rules that come into force next year and is looking to use the pressure to deliver for Aston Martin in a positive way.
“Part of the motivation is fear of failure,” Newey says. “I’ve been trying to learn to use it constructively, because it’s the difference between having too much pressure or mismanaging the pressure and causing mistakes, and being so focused that you end up in a kind of tunnel vision state.”
“For the past three or four months since I joined the team, my wife has been complaining that I’m a design mess. And I know what she means: I don’t know left from right and I’m probably not very social. Given these pressing deadlines, all of my limited processing power is focused on the task at hand.
“But we shouldn’t stay that way for too long. And it all sounds very selfish. Really, in the end it all comes down to the team and how we work together.”
As Aston Martin is said to be reorganizing its engineering department, with many people from its design and aero teams moving away from F1 projects and into other areas of the business, Newey says how the entire organization works together will be key to its future success.
“We are a team of about 300 engineers, and of course collaboration is the most important aspect,” he said. “In many ways, more than the individual talent within an organization, it is the way we all collaborate, communicate, and get the best out of each other.
“What does this mean for me personally? Well, right now I probably spend about 50% of my day huddled around a CAD station or working on a one-on-one level with other engineers in meetings.
“Honestly, I usually prefer the former, because I think one-on-one meetings allow for so much brainstorming. Large meetings, if you’re not careful, can turn into procedural information exchanges that don’t actually generate new ideas. Of course, this is the important part.
“Therefore, a mixture is needed. We are under intense deadline pressure to release the main structural parts of the car: the gearbox, followed by the chassis, front suspension, rear suspension, etc. in time for the January test.”
“Actually, I spend a little more time than I probably would like, about 50% of my time at the drawing board looking at things like computational fluid dynamics and vehicle dynamics programs, trying to make sure we come up with a concept that everyone is happy with. We never want to end up without everyone’s participation and buy-in.”