Adrian Newey reveals terrible work-life balance in new F1 role - 'Not a state to be in'

Adrian Newey is locked in at Aston Martin working on the 2026 F1 car, but has recently revealed it has come at a sacrifice to his personal life.

In March, Newey officially joined Aston Martin as their managing technical partner, reportedly on a five-year contract worth up to £30million a year.

The British design legend was brought on board by Lawrence Stroll due to his championship-winning pedigree, designing championship-winning cars for the likes of Williams, McLaren and Red Bull in the past.

Following his arrival at Aston Martin, Newey’s wife Amanda wrote a tongue-in-cheek social media post referencing how much the 66-year-old will be working at the team, and wrote on X: "I can’t wait to see you again, dear husband! Let’s catch up in about five years time."

Now, speaking in a video for Le Sprint, Newey light-heartedly opened up on his terrible work-life balance since joining Aston Martin, and claimed he has gone into a ‘design trance’.

Newey said: "My wife, over the last three, four months since I’ve joined the team, complained that I’m in a design trance and I understand what she means," Newey said.

"I don’t see left and right and I’m not terribly sociable. What limited processing power I have is concentrated on the task in hand given these pressing deadlines, but that’s not a state to stay in for too long.

"And that all sounds quite egotistical as well, it's really all about the team and how we work together."

Can Aston Martin become a title-winning team with Newey?

The F1 regulation changes in 2026 offer Aston Martin a major opportunity to lift themselves from the midfield and become a race-winning team, all aided by the work of their star signing Newey.

During a recent conversation on the James Allen On F1 podcast however, Newey compared his arrival at Aston Martin to when he first joined Red Bull in 2006, which he described as a team who had ‘lost belief’.

"That was a difficult thing to overturn at Red Bull," Newey explained.

"And I don’t want to say too much, but there is a bit of deja vu at the moment [at Aston Martin]."

Aston Martin are currently seventh in the constructors’ standings, behind Williams and Racing Bulls who have both achieved podium finishes in 2025 with Carlos Sainz and Isack Hadjar respectively.

Even seventh is not safe for the British team, with Haas two points away after a series of impressive results from Ollie Bearman, and Sauber are also 10 points away from catching the team in racing green.

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