'I'm out': Why Aston Martin boss stepped down because of Adrian Newey

Cowell and Newey in Aston Martin green edited alongside one another with F1 car on track in background — Photo: © IMAGO

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'I'm out': Why Aston Martin boss stepped down because of Adrian Newey

The real reason behind Aston Martin's F1 leadership reshuffle

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Thursday 9 April 2026 08:27

When Aston Martin completed the major coup of signing former Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey, they surely never imagined the mess they find themselves in today with the British brainiac at the helm.

Newey's work is revered in F1 and his mind has contributed to 26 title victories across the drivers' and constructors' championships during his illustrious career, which has spanned over 35 years.

Yet he is currently facing his biggest challenge to date, with a Honda power unit throwing up persistent problems that the Japanese powerhouse are now insisting only occurred when partnered with the Newey-designed Aston Martin chassis.

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But even if you put the mammoth technical challenge aside that Newey faces under the new regulations, another issue refusing to go away is his far from seamless integration with the rest of the team's leadership structure.

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Aston Martin's many leadership restructures

When Red Bull's former Technical Director officially joined Aston Martin in May 2025, he immediately got to work on tackling the task of designing their 2026 car in line with the new chassis and power unit rules.

In his role as Managing Technical Partner, Newey worked alongside team principal at the time Andy Cowell, with Aston Martin F1 owner Lawrence Stroll overseeing the project.

Cowell took over the team principal role from Mike Krack in January 2025, but the leadership restructure didn't last long and Cowell soon moved into the position of Chief Strategy Officer.

The F1 paddock was then taken aback by the news that Newey would be replacing Cowell, juggling the team principal duties with his technical position for 2026, a questionable decision considering he was hired for his design ideas.

Newey's 'way of working' pushed out Aston Martin boss

As Newey continues to struggle balancing the right tone in media sessions with getting a detailed understanding of the many issues with the AMR26, F1 insider and journalist Mark Hughes has shed light on his position at Aston Martin.

In a recent episode of The Undercut podcast, Hughes spoke of Newey's leadership style and place in the team, saying: "He’s now at that logical place [Aston Martin] where that approach would take you to, where he’s in charge of everything.

"Although, ultimately, of course, he doesn’t want to be in charge of absolutely everything, he doesn’t want to be in charge of the administration and the commercial aspects. All of those things which will take away from what he sees as his technical mission."

He then explained how Newey had landed the team principal position role in the first place, adding: "So that position of team principal, it was really just a result of Andy Cowell holding up his hands and saying ‘I’m out’, because he couldn’t work with Adrian’s way of working."

As rumours continue to swirl that ex-Audi chief Jonathan Wheatley could be Aston Martin-bound, Hughes looked to the future and how yet another Aston Martin leadership reshuffle could impact Newey, saying: "We’re now hearing that there’s going to be a recruitment of another team principal and I would expect that would be someone who is senior but not too senior and therefore does not impinge upon Adrian, and the way he railed against Patrick [Head] and Ron [Dennis] and people like that who were imposing their power over him."

"Adrian will still be in charge of everything he wants to be in charge of."

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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Aston Martin Adrian Newey Andy Cowell