As Aston Martin continues to slide down the rankings this season, all hopes seem to be pinned on the 2026 car – the first vehicle designed by Adrian Newey. The star designer was poached from champions Red Bull last year. According to team boss Andy Cowell, Newey is currently not even responding to his emails; the celebrated Brit is glued to his drawing board.
Aston Martin currently ranks seventh in the constructors’ championship – a notable decline compared to previous seasons. After the Brits got off to a strong start in 2023, the team has been losing competitiveness over the past few years. Last year, Aston Martin finished in an unimpressive fifth place, nearly four hundred points away from the top four teams.
At the factory in Silverstone, under the leadership of Andy Cowell, improvements are being made to the AMR25. At the same time, the focus is also – perhaps even more so – on the new 2026 regulations. Aerodynamics guru Adrian Newey is fully occupied with the new design, which is expected to bring Aston Martin back to the forefront of Formula 1. In an interview with the Spanish AS, Cowell explained how Newey has been fully immersed in 2026 since his first day in March.
‘He Got Straight to Work’
“He (Adrian Newey) is a race car designer – one of the best,” said the Aston Martin CEO. “From day one, we made sure his workspace was ready. He attended meetings about the new regulations and the concepts we were working on. We also set all the deadlines for submitting information about the development of this car. He actually got straight to work with sketching.”
Although Newey has plenty of time to work on 2026, Aston Martin must carefully manage the allocation of available resources. As a result, the future AMR26 now takes up more time in the wind tunnel. “He’s in that cycle where he’s designing the fundamental aspects of the car,” Cowell continued. “About 90 percent of the production takes place in the factory, so that’s where we want Newey to be. He has his office there, and everyone who passes by says he’s glued to his drafting table. He doesn’t go to reunions, he doesn’t respond to emails – he’s just busy creating a fast car. And we all want to help him with that.”
