F1 legend Adrian Newey gets secretive over use of AI at Aston Martin

Newey and Stroll at Aston Martin — Photo: © IMAGO

Adrian Newey

F1 legend Adrian Newey gets secretive over use of AI at Aston Martin

Adrian Newey delved into the use of AI in F1

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Saturday 7 February 2026 19:43

Ever wanted to know if Adrian Newey uses AI? The F1 design legend recently provided a cryptic insight into the use of the technology at Aston Martin.

In recent years, AI discourse and content has become inescapable. From 'slop' to startups, the boom of large language models and companies such as OpenAI means the technology now occupies a daily presence in our online lives.

To measure the scale of the growth of language-based models, OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT emerged as the fifth most visited website (according to Semrush) in 2025, only surpassed by Google, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

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So then? What does F1's most legendary designer Adrian Newey — who has created title winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull over the past 30 years — think about the technology currently dominating the globe?

Does Newey use ChatGPT?

When asked in an interview for Aston Martin's website if he uses ChatGPT, Newey laughed and said: "What we are using machine learning, or AI, for is much more specific tasks and therefore how we use that AI is incredibly tailored.

"We're typically not using anything off the internet because we are too specialised for that, but there are instances of using pattern recognition to help with relatively simple tasks and even race strategy through simulation and game theory."

When asked what these 'specific tasks' were and in what ways AI is going to be used in the future, he replied with a rather secretive answer.

"There are more advanced applications... which I'd rather not talk about at the moment," he continued.

"The thing about things like compute power, data processing, artificial intelligence, is it's all advancing so rapidly. What's new now will be pretty much out of date in 12 months.

"It's obviously incredibly exciting for us, and it's up to us to work with our partners to keep up with that because the opportunities it creates are absolutely immense. It's almost as if we have to keep reopening our minds to what's available, not on a daily basis, but certainly on a six-month basis, to take the most advantage as things evolve."

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