At Aston Martin, they have already begun to notice the work of Adrian Newey, and not just by seeing him working late into the night at the mega factory in Silverstone. The guru, the number one aerodynamicist, the best car designer of all time, has helped the team grow.
The suspension, Newey’s big commitment for the 2026 car
And he has done so by bringing in his team of engineers to bring new material, even though all efforts remain focused on next year. A year in which they are expected to create a car capable of fighting for important things.
Thus, the most successful engineer in Formula 1 history has been working tirelessly for months to give his drivers the best possible car for next year… with Fernando Alonso at his best, at the highest level.
Of course, many have high expectations for the performance of the AMR25 at the Belgian Grand Prix, which will be held in just over two weeks, and where a new package of improvements for the car will arrive, which could even bring Alonso closer to Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari, considering that McLaren has proven to be unbeatable.
This was confirmed by Andy Cowell, CEO of the British team, who, above all, revealed an area in which Newey is focusing his efforts: the suspension. In fact, the engineer continues to work quietly but without distractions, and one of the things he has already designed is the suspension that will equip the AMR26, so now he can focus on other parts.
At Aston Martin, the idea is clear: they not only want to be in the fight for victories and podiums, but they want to do so while being the best on the grid, and all with the characteristic dominance of the cars created from the British engineer’s pencil.
“He has spent hour after hour at his desk just thinking about suspension concepts for 2026.”
Team boss Andy Cowell explained Newey’s way of working: “Since he arrived in March, Adrian has spent hour after hour at the design desk just thinking about suspension concepts for the 2026 car,” said the green team leader in an interview with the team.
He could already be seen in the paddock at Silverstone, right where Aston Martin has its factory. With his dreaded notebook in hand, he stared intently at the McLaren car, which is currently the best on the grid. His successes are not the result of luck, but of hard work. And this was demonstrated on Thursday afternoon on the eve of the British Grand Prix, when he was seen still working in the offices when no one else was there after 8:30 p.m.
“There’s no point in fantasizing or daydreaming about the future. It’s about getting down to work. If we do our job properly, things will turn out well,” says Newey. The British engineer tries to explain how difficult it is to develop a modern Formula 1 car, describing it as “a very complicated beast.”
“I want to be at the center of everything.”
“F1 teams are increasingly dependent on simulation tools: computational fluid dynamics, wind tunnels, and the correlation between the actual car on the track and those tools,” explains the guru himself.
“If I have a drawing on the table with 100 lines, I’ve probably drawn 200 lines to get to that point and deleted 100. I change things as I develop an idea and on the board I can have everything in front of me on a decent scale, rather than zooming in on individual components, which is what you tend to do in CAD,” he explains.
“I want to be at the center of everything,” Newey proclaimed when he signed with Aston Martin. The team’s current situation, Stroll’s wishes, and his personality will not make him look the other way with the British team’s current problems. Because there is no doubt that Newey provides certain oversight on the parts that come out of this AMR25. How and how much remains to be seen.
In fact, it was Alonso himself who revealed at Silverstone to DAZN that “when we ask him, he picks up and goes to another office. He’s already in 2026 mode.”
When the Englishman took up his position at McLaren 28 years ago after his adventure with Williams, he arrived, in his own words, “with a bunch of drawings under his arm, all dated August 1, 1997, for legal reasons.” Did Newey have access to information about the AMR25 before joining on March 3? It is reasonable to assume that his employment gap between Red Bull and Aston Martin has been scrupulously observed.
Newey’s parallels at Aston Martin are reminiscent of his time at Williams, McLaren, and Red Bull: he has won titles at all of them.
But time is of the essence for the British team. At McLaren, Newey admitted that he “worked seven days a week” on the 1998 car. In a parallel to the current situation, “Ron [Dennis] insisted that I go to the Hungarian Grand Prix on August 16. I wanted to work on the 1998 car, but I hoped to have some influence on the 1997 car, offer some advice on setup and so on,” he revealed in an interview with the BBC in 2011.
“I figured I could see the team and the drivers, Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen, in action, and Ron can be extremely persuasive when he wants to be, so I accepted.” Newey admitted that he suggested some modifications to the MP/12 designed by Steve Nichols, Neil Oatley, and Henri Durand. When he arrived at Williams in 1990, he redesigned the diffuser on that year’s car while designing the 1991 model. These are all parallels that link him to his current role at Aston Martin.
1997, 2006, and 2025. These are the three dates when Newey has changed jobs in recent decades. He worked at Williams before McLaren and then Red Bull. He has won titles at all of them, and at each and every one with his legendary dashboard that has accompanied him throughout his career. Many hopes are pinned on him.