Formula One: F1 design legend Adrian Newey to join Aston Martin from next year

Aston Martin have managed to pull off a major coup ahead of the Formula One 2025 season with legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey leaving current constructor’s champions Red Bull Racing (RBR) to join the Silverstone-based team from March 2025.

In May, Red Bull Racing announced that Newey was leaving the reigning world champions after almost 20 years meaning the acclaimed British designer – with 25 world championships to his credit – was on the market. Now he’s joining a team that has big ambitions to challenge for the title and the backing of billionaire Lawrence Stroll — but no race wins yet.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team,” said Newey. “I have been hugely inspired and impressed by the passion and commitment that Lawrence brings to everything he is involved with. Lawrence is determined to create a world-beating team. He is the only majority team owner who is actively engaged in the sport.

 

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“His commitment is demonstrated in the development of the new AMR Technology Campus and wind tunnel at Silverstone, which are not only state of the art but have a layout that creates a great environment to work in. Together with great partners like Honda and Aramco, they have all the key pieces of infrastructure needed to make Aston Martin a world championship-winning team and I am very much looking forward to helping reach that goal.”

Newey will arrive in his new role as ‘managing technical partner’ in time to help shape how Aston Martin responds to the new F1 car regulations coming for 2026. “As soon as Adrian became available, we knew we had to make it happen,” Stroll said in a statement. “Our initial conversations confirmed that there was a shared desire to collaborate in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The last time the regulations had a big change, with the return of ‘ground effect’ aerodynamics for 2022, it was Newey’s Red Bull that dominated as Max Verstappen won the championship. Newey had a lifetime of experience to draw on, having written his university thesis on ground effect in the 1980s, back when it was previously used in F1.

Aston Martin’s drivers are Fernando Alonso, the two-time champion who Newey has previously said he’d be keen to work with, and Lance Stroll, son of team owner Lawrence Stroll. Newey joined Red Bull in 2006 and helped the team win seven drivers’ titles — including the last three seasons with Max Verstappen — and six constructors’ titles.

Red Bull said in May that its chief technical officer would be stepping back from F1 design and focus on a production car, the RB17, before leaving in the first quarter of 2025.