Aston Martin Formula 1 owner, Lawrence Stroll, says that Adrian Newey is “a winner” and is the key piece of the puzzle in improving the team’s fortunes.
Stroll said he first approached Newey two years ago, and his interest ramped up as soon as it became public that he was on the market.
Newey will start work at the team on March 1 after completing his Red Bull gardening leave.
“Adrian arguably is the greatest in the world at what he does,” said Stroll. “There’s nobody who’s come close to winning as many World Championships.
“He’s a gentleman, he’s a winner, he’s a competitor, and he has the passion and desire to win, as do I, and most of the people in this building.
“We started on a journey six years ago with this team, on similar ground, much smaller premises, a much smaller building, and that’s really when the journey had started.
“We’ve put together a fantastic management team. And building this premises was really showing our real intent. First was hiring the people, but to make this level of investment, to build a premises like this, that was non-existent before, in F1, the first of its sort. It’s so grand, but it’s so special, we can build 100% of the car here.
“We’re going to have the first, greatest, newest wind tunnel built in over 20 years. That’s a huge tool to make the car go faster, ultimately. So putting all that in place, the people, the premises, and then really looking for our technical leader.
“And I had been trying to speak to Adrian for a couple of years. And I believe when things are meant to be, they happen.
“I believe he shared my passion, intent and vision. And there really is no other F1 team that is poised for the future as we are. So I can’t be more excited to have Adrian on board.”
Expanding on Newey’s role he said: “As I mentioned, we have a strong team, some of which Adrian has already worked with.
“Adrian is going to be the managing technical partner of that team, so on a day-to-day basis, he’ll be here, full commitment, full time committed to F1, giving leadership and direction to his team.”
He added: “Adrian is key, key, key, and the biggest part of the puzzle, certainly from a technical point of view, from a technical leadership point of view. He will be leading the team, and I think that will have a trickle-down effect throughout the whole organisation.”
Stroll made it clear that the focus will be in 2026, with Newey joining in time to make a difference heading into the new rules set.
“We had a slight distraction moving into this building,” he said. “We had a very strong start to 2023 as you know, the first nine races were great. These ground effect cars are rather complex, and obviously we went in the different or clearly appears now a wrong direction. We’re trying to find our way back.
“We’re currently fifth in the championship, in all honesty, for a team like us, with just moving into this building, with not having all our tools in place, without having a true, big technical leader as Adrian – I would like to be in a better space, don’t get me wrong, but our focus really lies on doing a better car for ’25 but really, most importantly, we’ll be focusing most of our energy next year on ’26.
“Re-set, new rules, new power. unit building is up and running, wind tunnel is running. So that’s really going to be our focus.”
