Legendary Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey is set to join Aston Martin in 2025 following his departure from Red Bull.
The 65-year-old’s exit from his role as chief technical officer at Red Bull was confirmed in May after an apparent breakdown in his relationship with team principal Christian Horner. He agreed to remain with the company until early 2025 to see out his work on their first hypercar, the RB17.
Sky Sports News reported Ferrari and Aston Martin had approached Newey, who visited the latter’s Silverstone factory in June.
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Sky Sports News understands that Newey will earn $26m a year (£19.8m) at Aston Martin and is expected to start in March 2025.
Aston Martin did not comment when approached by Sky Sports News, but it is understood Newey’s move will be confirmed at a press conference on Tuesday.
By joining Aston Martin, Newey will work with two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and is expected to play a key role in the design of their 2026 car, which will be the first season with new technical regulations.
Newey has proved on multiple occasions he can design a race-winning F1 car when changes to the regulations take place, showing that most recently in 2022 with Red Bull.
The 65-year-old has designed 14 championship-winning F1 cars during his time at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.
Why would Newey join Aston Martin?
Since the middle of last year, Aston Martin have fallen away from the fight at the front and are fifth in the constructors’ championship after 16 rounds, 214 points behind fourth-placed Mercedes.
After finishing on the podium eight times last season, their best result in 2024 so far has been Alonso’s fifth-place finish at the second-round Saudi Arabian GP and both of their cars finished outside the points last time out at Monza.
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Honda will supply Aston Martin with a power unit from 2026, when the first season of the new technical regulations begin, and Alonso has previously declared the team have the best project for the future.
The Silverstone-based team opened a new factory last year and have a new wind tunnel, which underlines their ambition to succeed in F1.
They signed Dan Fallows from Red Bull in 2022, who was key to Sebastian Vettel’s four consecutive titles between 2010 and 2013, so Newey will now be reunited with his former colleague.
Signing for Aston Martin would also keep Newey in the United Kingdom, whereas joining Ferrari may have required moving to Italy.
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Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast last month, Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz analysed why Aston Martin would be an attractive option for Newey.
He said: “You look at the investment that’s already happened at Aston Martin, you look at their factory. He’s already got Dan Fallows, who he worked with successfully at Red Bull, to be there with him.
“I would imagine he would have definitely talked to Dan Fallows and asked, ‘What is this place that I’m coming to? What’s it like?’
“I asked Dan Fallows about this in Hungary actually, whether he’d be happy with Newey joining him. Fallows said, ‘What you have to understand is that Adrian is a relentless, unstoppable Formula 1 competitor, and I would be amazed if he didn’t join another team, and I would certainly welcome working with Adrian again at Aston Martin’.
“We’ve all had discussions with various people at Aston Martin about what you can offer someone like Newey. You can say, ‘Just come in, be a figurehead, sprinkle your magic dust here and there, put our people on the right path, and we think we’ve got the ability to do the rest with Fallows and the team that are already there’.”
Formula 1 leaves mainland Europe for Baku and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on September 13-15, live on Sky Sports F1.
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