Newey ‘in design trance’ since joining Aston Martin | RACER

Adrian Newey admits he has been in something of a ‘design trance’ since joining Aston Martin as managing technical partner as he focuses on the 2026 Formula 1 regulations.

Aston Martin secured Newey’s services from Red Bull last year, with the legendary designer starting work with his new team in early March 2025. Newey says he has focused on the opportunities presented by the new rules that come into effect next year, and has tried to use the pressure Aston Martin has to deliver in a positive way.

“Part of the motivation is the fear of failure,” Newey said. “I’ve been trying to learn to use that constructively, because it’s the difference between too much pressure or mismanagement of pressure, which causes mistakes, and which leads to quite a focused and tunnel-vision state.

“My wife has been complaining for the past three or four months since I joined the team that I’m in a design trance. And I understand what she means, that I don’t really see left and right, and that I’m probably not very social. What limited processing power I have is all focused on the task at hand, given these pressing deadlines.

“But that’s not a situation to stay in for too long. And that all sounds quite selfish. In the end, it’s all about the team and how we work together.”

At a time when Aston Martin is believed to be restructuring its engineering department – ​​with some of its design and aerodynamics teams moving F1 projects to other parts of the business – Newey says the way the whole organization works together will be the key factor for future success.

“We are a team of about 300 engineers. Collaboration is obviously the most important aspect,” he said. “In many ways it’s the way we all work together, more than individual talents within the organization [and] make sure we communicate and get the best out of each other.

“What does that mean for me personally? Well, it means that I currently probably spend about 50% of my day working with the other engineers, either on a one-on-one level, gathered around the CAD station, or in meetings.

“If I’m honest, I generally prefer the former, because I think the 1-on-1 meetings are quite often the place where you can brainstorm. The big meetings, if you’re not careful, become procedural information exchanges, without actually coming up with new ideas, and that’s of course the most important thing.

“So you need a mix. We are under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines to release the key architectural parts of the car – that’s the gearbox, followed by the chassis, the front suspension, the rear suspension, etc. – in time for testing in January.

“In reality, I probably spend a little more time than I would like, about 50% of my time, at the drawing board, looking at the computational fluid dynamics, the vehicle dynamics programs, etc., trying to make sure we come up with a concept that we’re all happy with. I never want it to not be with everyone’s involvement and buy-in.”