Adrian Newey going back to the drawing board at Aston Martin

LONDON – Adrian Newey was literally going back to the drawing board when Formula One’s foremost designer started work at Aston Martin on March 3.

The 66-year-old Briton, whose departure from Red Bull was announced in May 2024, famously likes to work with pencil and paper in a sport awash with supercomputers and data-crunching on a mind-blowing scale.

“His office is ready, the drawing board’s there,” team principal Andy Cowell told reporters during testing in Bahrain last week.

Newey had an office, complete with drawing board, next to team boss Christian Horner at Red Bull and his new one will be in the midst of an army of designers on a floor of Aston Martin’s Silverstone headquarters.

“I guess it means I am the last dinosaur in the industry, probably,” he once told Reuters, when asked about the drawing board early in his time at Red Bull.

“It’s what I grew up on. I like the ability to sketch at a decent scale. What I like about a drawing board is that I can lay things out.”

Cars designed by Newey have won 12 constructors’ championships and 14 drivers’ titles for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.

His 2023 Red Bull was the most dominant in the sport’s history, with 21 wins from 22 races.

Aston Martin, with 43-year-old Spanish double world champion Fernando Alonso and team owner’s son Lance Stroll, have yet to win anything in Formula One and finished fifth last season.

Canadian Lawrence Stroll, the big boss, described Newey as a bargain after announcing his signing in September 2024.

Cowell, a former Mercedes engine head who joined Aston Martin in 2024 as chief executive officer and was appointed team boss in January, has said he expects Newey to have an immediate impact.

“Everybody’s super excited to work with Adrian,” he said in Bahrain.

“His record speaks for itself. So we’re looking forward to welcoming him on site, doing an induction for a new employee. It might be a little bit different.”

“And starting work on introducing him to the key technical players within our business, showing him the business tools for engineering the car.

“And then getting stuck into creating a 2026 car and helping the improvements on 2025.

“I’m sure he’ll get the lay of the land a lot quicker than I did.”

Meanwhile, Australian Jack Doohan has won praise from Alpine team boss Oliver Oakes for a “punchy” pre-season response to speculation about his F1 future.

Doohan, 22, made his debut for the Renault-owned outfit in Abu Dhabi in December 2024 and is starting his first season on home soil in Melbourne on March 16.

There has been uncertainty about how long he will keep the seat, with Argentinian Franco Colapinto waiting in the wings after joining from Williams on a multi-year deal.

Doohan hit back in January, when asked if he felt undermined.

“I was quite proud of him being punchy with you all,” Oakes told reporters after three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain, while sidestepping an invitation to shut down the speculation about how many races Doohan would get.

“I actually feel for him, because I get that everybody wants the clickbait and that’s a discussion topic. But I think also he should be given a bit of space to just get on with it for a few rounds.

“I think he’s done a really good job of just blocking out the noise and getting on with it.”

Oakes said drivers were always under pressure, at every level.

“I get everybody has an opinion, everyone can be a keyboard warrior as well, but it’s very simple though, isn’t it? We’re here to go racing, we want the best driver in the car, the best engine in the car,” he added.

“(Executive adviser) Flavio (Briatore) said it, didn’t he – we’re starting the season with Jack and Pierre (Gasly) and then let’s see how it all goes.

“I think we’ve been really honest as a team as to what we’re doing. I’m pretty chilled with it... Jack just gets on with it and also let the team get on with it.”

Doohan, son of motorcycle great Mick, stayed out of trouble in testing, with the team looking likely to be in the fight to be best of the rest behind the top four of McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes. Alpine finished sixth last season.

“I think our target is to continue where we ended up at the end of last year...” said Oakes.

“We kind of want to be clipping at the heels of those (front) teams,”

“Both drivers have been pretty happy with the car.” REUTERS