Adrian Newey: Aston Martin boosts 2026 title hopes with F1 legend designer hire | F1 News

Aston Martin has won the battle to sign legendary Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey, a move that could have huge implications.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest engineers in the history of the sport, having designed 14 championship-winning cars over the past 32 years, Newe will officially end his 19-year career at Red Bull and join Aston Martin in March 2025.

This change is arguably more significant than any driver change, especially Lewis Hamilton's move from Mercedes to Ferrari, because success in F1 is ultimately determined more by the car than the pilot.

Aston Martin sits fifth in the Constructors' Championship heading into the final stretch of a disappointing season, but Newe's arrival will boost their hopes of competing for the title when new regulations are introduced in 2026.

Ahead of the announcement on Tuesday, Newey is expected to confirm he will join Aston Martin at a press conference at 11am. Sky Sports F1 He assesses whether the Silverstone squad is the final piece of the puzzle in their quest for glory.

What makes Newie so special?

Since Red Bull announced in May this year that Nieuwe would be leaving the team in early 2025 and that development on its 2024 F1 car would be halted with immediate effect, every top F1 team has reportedly expressed interest in signing Nieuwe.

Despite interest from McLaren and Mercedes, only Ferrari and Aston Martin remained serious contenders, and Newe finally made his decision towards the end of the summer.

Newe has loved designing racing cars since he was a child and still plans all his F1 car designs on the drawing board.

With advances in technology, most engineers use CAD (computer-aided design) systems, but Newey still pulls out a pencil and draws.

How to imagine the airflow generated by a very complex F1 car and maximize downforce is something that cannot be taught.

“He lives in the Matrix,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner in 2022.

“He was the conductor of the technical orchestra for many years. He is still very hands-on, still at the drawing board. Probably the only drawing board in Formula 1. I had an argument with Ron Dennis and had to get him out of McLaren.

“Of course there were ups and downs over all these years, but it was always fun. It was always about racing.”

Newe's departure from Red Bull F1 in early May coincided with the team suddenly catching up with the world champions, with just three wins in the 11 races since the announcement.

Red Bull appear to have taken the wrong path in development, with some in the paddock questioning whether Newe's absence was a serious factor.

“I think we've had this problem because it's already existed. One person's opinion can't have such a dramatic effect so quickly,” Horner said after the Italian Grand Prix earlier this month.

“It really started to pick up in Miami. Adrian was working in Miami on Friday, so it couldn't have impacted him that quickly.

“We are working with the same people. F1 is a team sport, it's a team problem and the team will come up with a solution.”

Success through rule changes

Newe has been designing championship-winning cars since 1992, and has built some of the greatest machines in F1 history during his time at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.

Of all his many strengths, perhaps his greatest strength is his ability to adapt to changing regulations. Given the new regulations that come into effect in 2026, this is the area where Aston Martin will be most pleased.

In 1998, F1 switched to narrower cars and McLaren won both the drivers' and constructors' titles, with Mika Häkkinen becoming a double world champion in 1999.

Fast forward to 2009 and Red Bull were the first to take the lead, with Newey leading the way with a major rule change. Without Brawn's ingenious double diffuser, Red Bull would have been champion that year.

Instead, Sebastian Vettel waited a season and won four consecutive titles from 2010 to 2013, with Red Bull also winning the Constructors' Championship that year.

Red Bull have recently reigned supreme once again with the return of ground-effect cars in 2022, and Max Verstappen has enjoyed unprecedented dominance.

Verstappen won a record 15 races in 2022 and 19 in 2023, including a record 10-race winning streak.

Even in other years when there were major rule changes, Newey still built a good car that won races. Having Newey doesn't guarantee that the team will at least fight for a win, but history shows that it's very likely that they'll be competing at the front.

Building a Dream Team

Newwe is not the first major technical hire since Laurence Stroll rebranded the Racing Point team, which was acquired by Aston Martin in 2021.

Technical Director Dan Fallows joins the team from Red Bull in 2022 and will be reunited with Newey. Fallows led the aerodynamics team during Red Bull’s dominance between 2010 and 2013, so he will feel comfortable working alongside Newey once again.

Aston Martin has also hired Enrico Cardil from Ferrari as its Chief Technology Officer for 2025. Cardil was responsible for aerodynamics at Ferrari and will bring further expertise to the Silverstone factory.

One of the more eye-catching recent appointments is former Mercedes engine expert Andy Cowell, who has been appointed CEO, replacing Martin Whitmarsh who is due to step down in October.

Cowell was instrumental in Mercedes' success when the turbo-hybrid era of F1 began in 2014, leading the design of the engine that helped the Silver Arrows win eight consecutive constructors' titles.

There's no point in building a great car without a great driver to get the best out of it, and Aston Martin has such a driver since signing Fernando Alonso in early 2023.

The Spaniard signed a two-year contract extension in April, which will keep him at the team until the end of the 2026 season, and will be hoping it will give him a real chance to finally add to the two drivers' titles he won in 2005 and 2006.

It could be argued that the weakest link in Aston Martin’s 2026 structure is Alonso’s team-mate Lance Stroll, who is expected to have an unconditional place at the team while his father remains the club’s owner.

If Aston produces a title-contending car in 2026, there’s little doubt that some of the sport’s other elite drivers will have asked their agents about the possibility of driving in 2027, too.

All eyes on Aston Martin in 2026

Aston Martin has been out of the top group since 2023, when Fernando Alonso took eight podiums and finished fourth in the drivers' standings.

But behind the scenes, Aston Martin has opened a new factory and wind tunnel at its state-of-the-art Silverstone base.

“This will allow us to do a lot more testing in the way we want to do it, and give us a lot more flexibility than we have now,” Fallows said. “There have been a lot of examples of things we wanted to do but couldn’t. There’s a reason we spend millions of pounds on these things.”

From 2026, Aston Martin will be the only team to use a powertrain provided by Honda, the Japanese manufacturer that recently supplied Red Bull with its winning engines.

Honda returned to F1 in 2015 as an engine supplier to McLaren but suffered a nightmare spell with reliability issues and a massive lack of performance, but has continued to rise since merging with Red Bull in 2019.

In an exciting 2021 season, Honda had the joint best power unit alongside Mercedes, which certainly helped Verstappen in his title battle with Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull had the best straight-line speed in early 2023 and still holds that level on top speed.

“As you can imagine, we’ve had a lot of meetings with Honda about 2026, both in person and online,” said Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough. “Their presence is very much embedded in our team now, and it’s a huge amount of work, a lot of change that we’re going through.

“The company and the team have grown. We are very excited about 2026. We have a lot to focus on this year and next.”

Ultimately, whether Aston Martin's dream team has achieved its goal will only become clear at the start of the 2026 season, but the bar has been raised dramatically.

Formula 1 heads to mainland Europe this weekend for the Baku and Azerbaijan Grand Prix, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month membership – no contract, cancel anytime