F1 insider claims Adrian Newey decision set Aston Martin back months

Adrian Newey, Lawrence Stroll, generic, Aston Martin, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 insider claims Adrian Newey decision set Aston Martin back months

Newey joined Aston Martin almost 17 months ago

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 4 August 2026 14:27

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Adrian Newey's start to life at Aston Martin has been a tumultuous one, facing setback after setback since he officially joined the squad in 2025.

Having announced his decision to leave Red Bull in 2024, the F1 design genius had to wait an entire year and serve gardening leave before he was granted permission to make the rival switch.

But given the new chassis regulations were published two months prior to his arrival on January 2, Newey was playing catch up from the moment he arrived at Silverstone.

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Neither Aston Martin nor their new power unit provider Honda have hit the ground running under the sport's new ruleset, leaving them with just a single point to their name after the first 11 race weekends of the year.

But were the team's struggles completely unprecedented or did Newey in fact worsen Aston Martin's chances of enjoying a positive start to the sport's new era?

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Why Aston Martin's Newey dream is behind schedule

In the words of Aston Martin's chief trackside officer Mike Krack, "It’s easy to point the finger," over who is to blame for the fact that Newey and Aston Martin have had to wait until the 11th round of the campaign to introduce upgrades and finally get a car into Q2.

But one F1 insider has now claimed that it is a decision made by Newey that actually set the team back even further upon his arrival.

According to the BBC's F1 correspondent Andrew Benson, Aston Martin's managing technical partner instantly asked the team to halt what they had already been working on prior to his arrival in order to switch to his design outline in March 2025.

Benson claims this put the team 'two months behind,' with Newey disrupting the workforce before he had barely had time to set up his desk and sharpen his pencils.

However this is Adrian Newey we are talking about.

The man's work has contributed to 14 F1 drivers' championships and 12 constructors' titles so far in his career.

Whilst he is facing criticism for this decision now, it could be his instant involvement with the team's aerodynamic approach back in 2025 that set things in motion for being in contention to win races and maybe even championships in the years to come.

There have been mistakes made by Newey already, and Aston Martin's wind tunnel delay then put Lawrence Stroll's F1 squad almost four months behind the rest of their grid, so this really isn't a case of Newey singlehandedly trashing the team's chances of picking up points this season.

It is how Newey, Aston Martin and Honda tackle the next six months as a unit that will really show whether Newey's intervention was necessary, or if he in fact delayed the team's aerodynamic improvements even further.