How Adrian Newey held Aston Martin together when they could have crumbled

Adrian Newey is, and has been for decades, one of the most heralded figures in all of F1.

The 67-year-old is a borderline savant when it comes to race car design and aerodynamic vision, and had made himself possibly the single most successful person in the sport's history.

For all of that, you don't hear a lot of people talking about him as a great and inspiring leader - more typically being painted as a behind-the-scenes genius, usually with a more public-facing figure (Ron Dennis at McLaren, Christian Horner at Red Bull) doing much of the heavy lifting in terms of personnel management.

Aston Martin ambassador Pedro de la Rosa, however, has veered hard in the opposite direction, telling the Express that Newey is almost single-handedly responsible for keeping the team united through their disastrous start to the season.

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Aston ambassador: Newey helped banish doubts

"After such a difficult start," he said, "if you don't have someone like Adrian in the team, we wouldn't have been able to keep as strongly united as we have. And that is key.

"Having a person like him, a leader, makes the difference. It doesn't take a lot in a Formula 1 team to actually lose track and start doubting your own tools, about your own people, about everything.

"Having Adrian has been absolutely key in actually keeping us as strongly united as we are. We should not underestimate this quality. It's not only about being a genius behind the drawing board, it's a lot more. Adrian brings a lot more, brings that leadership that you need in situations like we've experienced."

Newey's 'brave' choice pays off

The Lawrence Stroll-owned team made the decision to take their lumps and slide further back from the pack over the first half of the season in order to focus on a single, bigger upgrade package for last month's Hungarian Grand Prix.

That package knocked two seconds a lap off their times and put them right back in the fight in the lower midfield, ahead of a Honda engine upgrade expected for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 23.

That decision, in De la Rosa's telling, is a shining example of Newey's leadership, and his willingness to take and commit to difficult choices.

"You have to be very brave in any Formula 1 team to take mid-to-long-term decisions," he explained. "They are correct, but sometimes you don't make it that far, for many reasons. That is a huge quality that Adrian has brought here, which has absolutely nothing to do with his strength behind the design process."

The next question for the team to answer: will their recent improvements be enough to convince Fernando Alonso to stick around for one more year?

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