Will Adrian Newey Succeed At Aston Martin?
Adrian Newey has signed for Williams F1 – This is what the title would have been if we all believed Jeremy Clarkson a few months back. Good old Jez.
Newey has instead opted for the yo-yo-ing Aston Martin, which comes as kind of a surprise but also not really a surprise. The key question is, will he have the impact people expect him to?
I think Newey will, but not the way people expect him to. He’s not being hired to be an aero guru, he’s hired to be a symbol of belief.
Let me explain.
Quick recap of the agreement:
Before getting into this, it’s best to provide context of the agreement which helps get my point across.
Adrian Newey will:
· Earn £30 million per year
· His title is Technical Managing Partner
· He will also be a shareholder
· Role begins in 2025 and will work on the 2026 active aero car
Newey has negotiated himself into a senior role whilst also supposedly having involvement in the day to day operations. I wonder how that dynamic will work with Enrico Cardile who joins in 2025 as Chief Technical Officer. This is my first concern which I will circle back to.
What Impact Will Newey Have?:
Newey will not have a direct impact on the aerodynamic performance of the car and I believe this to be the case based on the role he has agreed and quite simply how F1 works these days.
When Newey made a name for himself, they were still using hammers to put things in place on an F1 car. F1 teams ran lean with only as many people as it really took to keep the car on track and as fast as it could go. So an individual could make a big difference.
Fast forward to today and each team quite literally has buildings filled with engineers dedicated to aero research and development (R&D). In this day an age, the impact of an individual is not measured by their technical brilliance, rather their ability to influence, gain trust from the masses and lead by example. This is where I believe Newey is needed and why Lawrence decided to put his money where his mouth is, and hire him!
Free Download an iPhone Wallpaper - Newey The Final Air-Bender
Celebrating the end of Adrian Newey's tenure at Red Bull racing
A symbol of belief:
Fred Vassuer is a very good example to get my point across. Fred was hired to replace the technically brilliant Binotto. Fred himself has seen it all, done it all and experienced it all and that is why he was hired.
Fred’s appointment was to steer the ship in the right direction and to get everyone aligned on where they want Ferrari to be and how they were going to get there. He was also hired to retain Charles who was growing frustrated with the direction Ferrari were going under Mattia Binnoto.
Newey’s appointment at Aston has a similar tone. Get everyone on board and keep the talent a.k.a Alonso.
Aston Martin have yo-yo-ed in the grid because they did not have a clear direction other than ‘copy red bull’. Why copy someone, when you can hire them to design your car, is probably what Lawrence was thinking whilst he was watching his son battle for P15.
Newey will lead the team simply because, he gets it. He won’t be standing in the office floor watching designers mould CAD designs or on the workshop watching the carbon get layered. No. He will sit in his big office and he will be steering the team in what he believes to be the right direction. Naturally, the next question is – Will Newey design a car capable of winning the title?
Will Newey Design A Championship Winning Car?
Does the sun-rise? Do we breath air? Does my mother hate me? All obvious answers.
A resounding yes.
Newey will definitely deliver because he is a genius. Larwrence stroll will give him his full backing, as if Newey designing something isn’t enough to convince people to just make it. There’s only one niggle though. I don’t doubt that he will get it right, but will he build a car with limitations like he did with the latest RedBull?
A weakness that was identified with the RedBull car – is the fact it hit its design ceiling last year itself. RedBull mortified everyone in early 2023 by claiming they stopped developing the 2023 car to focus on 2024. When they unveiled the 2024 car – which looked Mercedes-esque, Newey said they made drastic changes in the fear teams would catch up. The other teams not only caught up but have surpassed RB. I wonder if the results would be better or worse if they developed their old concept?
So the question is – did Newey twice over design a car with a shallow development ceiling or has the ground effect design philosophy reached it’s peak? Given McLaren are still finding major gains as well as Ferrari and Mercedes the answer may be that Newey did design a car that had poor opportunities to develop. People will point the finger at asymmetric breaking but I think their gradual decline shows that the issue is more critical to the car as a whole, rather than one aspect.
We will have to wait and see if Newey has learned from this experience.
Similarities to Alpine:
Circling back to the Aston Martin structure. Newey joining has somewhat displaced what seemed to be a solid structure for Aston Martin in 2025. Before Newey, there were clear lines of communication and leadership. With Newey joining – there now seems to be an element of toe stepping in the technical department. In particular with Enrico Cardile who also joins in 2025 as CTO, reporting into Newey. The good news I guess, is they will both be learning together and will hopefully form a fruitious relationship. Can you guess who Lance will sack if it doesn’t work out?
The structure with Newey looks like this and it is strikingly similar to another team on the grid who seem to have a civil war just before the start of a season and just at the end depending on how well everything went. Looking at you Alpine.
My concern is – no matter how brilliant someone is, a poor organisational structure can be the end of any good talent. E.g. Otmar Szafnauer, Cyril Abiteboul, and any person at chief level since Renault became Alpine.
Conclusion:
The conclusion is pretty straightforward.
Lawrence now has more than enough to get the job done and needs to make sure that his strong technical leadership team work together to gain the desired output. This is easier said than done. This is crunch time. He has probably spent more than he wants to on this team and if it doesn’t work out I can’t help but feel he will fly straight to America with contracts for Andretti to buy the team.
For Newey – the task is similar. Don’t rock the boat, but remain confident and utilise your experience. Newey is walking into a role that is more corporate than technical and will need to understand team harmony will produce better results than hands on technical management.
