Adrian Newey says joining Aston Martin became “a very natural choice” after talking to owner Lawrence Stroll and seeing the new facility at Silverstone.
Newey will officially start at the team on March 1 in the role of technical managing partner, with overall technical control of the organisation.
He is also a shareholder and partner of Stroll in the project.
“I think I felt as if I needed a new challenge,” Newey said of his departure from Red Bull.
“And so kind of towards the end of April, I decided I needed to do something different.
“I spent lots of time with Mandy, my wife, kind of discussing, ‘Okay, what’s next? Do we go off and sail around the world? Do I do something different, America’s Cup, or whatever?’ So we took a bit of time out.
“And I felt I’ve been lucky enough to have achieved what I aspired to from the age of 10 or 12, which was simply to be a designer – I don’t think I knew the word engineer – in motor racing, I can honestly say, everything else has been a bonus, having sort of achieved that straight out of university.
“I never, of course, expected anything like what I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with. But you have to be honest with yourself, you have to keep yourself fresh. And so I felt I needed a new challenge. And so took a bit of time off.”
Newey says Stroll was quick to make his interest in his services clear.
“Lawrence and I have known each other off and on over the years,” he said. “We often bump into each other in the [hotel] gym, particularly at the Middle East and Far East races.
“As I announced to everybody that I would be departing the old team I was very flattered to have a lot of approaches from various teams, but really, Lawrence’s passion and commitment and enthusiasm is very endearing. It’s very persuasive.
“The reality is, if you go back 20 years what we now call team principals were actually the owners of the teams, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Eddie Jordan, etc, etc.
“In this modern era Lawrence is actually unique in being the only properly active team owner. And I think that does that is a different feeling when you have somebody like Lawrence involved like that, it’s back to the old school model.
“And to have the chance to be a shareholder and a partner is something that hasn’t been offered to me before. So it’s a slightly different slant. It’s one I’m very much looking forward to. It became a very natural choice.”
Newey acknowledged that the new Aston Martin facility at Silverstone played a key role in persuading him to join the team.
“I think what Lawrence and Martin [Whitmarsh] have built here, these facilities are just stunning,” he said. “It’s not an easy thing to do, to build a brand new factory in a green field site and have a really nice, warm, creative feel to it.
“Because, after all, that’s what we’re here for, to try to be creative and to come up with good solutions, and particularly with good communication between everybody that works here.
“And I’ve seen some new buildings that haven’t quite fulfilled that, but this one is has a great feel.
“The proportions are right. It has all the facilities. I’m so looking forward to starting, to getting to know everybody here, to work with them, and go from there.”
Asked what his role will be he said: “Any F1 team is the same, we have three principal departments, which is aerodynamics, mechanical design and vehicle performance or vehicle dynamics.
“So it will be making sure that we try to have synergy between those departments and with Honda on the PU side, because there’ll be probably more than ever, a big interaction between the PU and the chassis. It’s about trying to come up with a holistic product.”
