Aston Martin replacing F1 legend Adrian Newey as team principal the inevitable outcome

Aston Martin

Aston Martin replacing Adrian Newey as team principal the inevitable outcome

Adrian Newey is currently taking on two roles

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Wednesday 18 March 2026 18:54

Aston Martin's 2026 F1 season is descending into chaos already, following double DNFs at both of the race weekends to have taken place so far.

Amid a faltering power unit partnership with Honda which began at the start of 2026, Aston Martin admitted to using the Australian GP as an extra testing session, but China was arguably even more embarrassing for the team.

Fernando Alonso retired on lap 33, with the 44-year-old revealing that the vibrations being felt by driving his AMR26 were too much for him to take, but that was still 23 laps more than team-mate Lance Stroll managed to complete during Sunday's main race.

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All of this has come despite the fact that the team have brought legendary car designer Adrian Newey into the outfit, a man whose car designs have claimed 26 world championships across his illustrious career.

They had been hoping to challenge for the world championship this year with Newey, Honda and new regulations proving a cause for optimism ahead of the season starting.

But Alonso and Stroll currently occupy 21st and 22nd place in the standings having not even completed a race as of yet.

There is an inevitable end result this year of Newey being replaced as team principal, but not necessarily because of poor performance, and he certainly won't be sacked from the other role that he holds as managing technical partner at the team.

Aston Martin's team principal problem

Newey is a square peg in the very round hole of team principal within the Aston Martin team.

The 67-year-old Brit was brought into the team last March as a managing technical partner, taking on a similar role as a car design head as he had at Red Bull, McLaren and Williams before that.

But the shock announcement at the end of 2025 came from the team revealing that Andy Cowell would no longer be the team principal heading up the operations, and that Newey would take on that role too.

It's not a role that Newey is used to, and indeed the Chinese GP weekend showcased the need for Aston Martin to hire a full-time team principal focusing solely on that role.

Newey was back at Silverstone as part of his managing technical partner role, something that Aston Martin told GPFans would be a regular occurrence throughout the 2026 season.

During these weekends, chief trackside officer Mike Krack takes on more responsibility, so why don't the team hire him as team principal once more and leave Newey to his Silverstone duties?

Well the answer to that question could lie in who might be available for Aston Martin to hire from outside of the team.

Could Christian Horner return to F1 with Aston Martin?

Since his departure from the Red Bull team last year, Christian Horner's name has been mentioned time and time again when talking about Aston Martin's team principal role.

He certainly has the pedigree, having claimed six constructors' championships and eight drivers' championships during a 20-year spell as Red Bull team boss, where Newey was one of his colleagues.

And Aston Martin certainly have the means to be able to bring big names into the team despite their current predicament, with team owner Lawrence Stroll having big ambitions and even bigger pockets.

What's more, Spanish journalist Antonio Lobato recently reported that Aston Martin are indeed looking for a team principal in order to take some of the day-to-day pressure off Newey, who is currently having to do media duties at race weekends.

But Horner isn't the only contender on the list, and Aston Martin could also promote somebody who is already working at the team.

GPFans have contacted Aston Martin about the rumours suggesting that they are looking to hire a new full-time team principal.

Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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F1 Christian Horner Aston Martin Adrian Newey