24/02/2025
NEWS STORY
"I think we'll feel the benefit of him in the opening days," says Aston Martin boss, Andy Cowell of Adrian Newey's arrival at British team.
After months of speculation, and claims by Business F1 that he had signed for Ferrari over the Miami GP weekend, in mid-September it was revealed that Adrian Newey was in fact joining Aston Martin.
While the design guru arrives to late to have any impact on the team's 2025 contender, and will instead get straight to work on the 2026 car, team boss Cowell believes Newey's impact will be felt from the start.
"He's one of the few engineers that can bridge across aerodynamics, vehicle dynamics and the data logger that is the driver," said Cowell, who joined the Silverstone-based outfit in October from Mercedes.
"He can communicate well with the driver and pull out the comments that the telemetry perhaps isn't showing and can bring that back into the factory on campus and help us chase the thing that will deliver the best lap time improvement.
"I think we'll feel the benefit of him in the opening days," Cowell continued "I'm sure he's frustrated with not working on a Formula 1 car at the moment, especially as there are new regulations out.
"And I'm sure he will be coming up with observations pertinent to the car concept, and also in terms of the tools, in terms of the fidelity of our tools and equipment, and his thoughts on where we should make improvements."
Asked what makes Newey - who has designed championship winning cars for three F1 teams - special, Cowell said: "Human creativity is hard to quantify. There's the threat of AI coming in and taking over from human creativity, but I think AI is a tool that helps human creativity.
"So I think individuals like Adrian, he's got a broad perspective and the determination to chase down beliefs in performance, and I believe that's what he will add."
"You can probably make it broader than that, can't you?" he said of AI. "It's not just Adrian."
In terms of drivers, Cowell praised Fernando Alonso, who at 43 going-on 44, is as determined as ever.
"We're lucky that we've got both Fernando and Lance on long-term contracts," he said. "Our challenge is coming up with a fast race car and giving it to both of them to do well.
"Age is a number," he added. "Fernando is a phenomenal individual today and he's very welcome in our team. Fernando's experiences and feedback are amazing, his feedback from the simulator is exceptionally good.
"We have confidence that if our improvement rate is steep, and is steeper than our opponents, then we will catch them, we will get to the front."