Andy Cowell feels Adrian Newey will get used to Aston Martin working environment a lot quicker than he did, as they prepare the team to get their development rate higher.
The unthinkable has happened. Newey has finally started work at Aston Martin from March 3 onward after decades with Red Bull. He will primarily be stationed to work on the 2026 car, but while on the job, he will certainly aide the engineering team on the 2025 car.
The team hasn’t had the best of starts in the pre-season test in Bahrain. They are one of the teams whose positioning is not certain as they hover outside the Top 5 in the standings. Aston Martin will need the mind of Newey to get them out of the mid-range run that they have been having off-late.
And team principal Cowell feels that he will get used to the Aston Martin environment a lot quicker than he did. “Everybody’s super excited to work with Adrian. His record speaks for itself,” he said to media. “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 the 2026 car and helping the improvements on 2025.
“I am sure he will get the lay of the land a lot quicker than I did,” summed up Cowell, who highlighted that the changes that Aston Martin has done within the organisation is to help with the development rate that has been missing for the last few seasons, leading to slumps.
All of the changes is to help them understand responsibilities and work in a streamline way. “As we announced in January, we’ve made some organisational changes to try and make the organisation flatter and therefore more efficient, so that the communication is good and fast,” said Cowell.
“And to try and have an emphasis of a trackside focus and a factory development focus, which I think is especially important for this year, where there’s one set of regulations with their last races and then a new set of regulations that are in place for five years. I’ve always found that if you have an engineer thinking about today and 12 months time, it’s always today that you focus on.
“And it’s about four in the afternoon that you start thinking about the next year and your brain’s a bit tired by then, or mine is. So having that well split so that integer individuals are spent on each project. We’re doing that and we’re putting a good emphasis into what’s everybody’s responsibility. I have rather use the word responsibility than accountability.
“The latter is the word used when all has gone wrong, from a legal perspective. What’s our responsibility as we come to work? And to keep it very simple and condensed down to just three responsibilities, crucial responsibilities. That’s the sort of thing I enjoy. I enjoy seeing a group of creative people focused, understanding that their partners are well focused and are delivering excellence. And then you tend to just look in your lane and do your best.
“So that’s the way we’re trying to work. As ever with these things, it’s the way that you try to work. Is it the way that you actually work every day? We’re all human. We’ve got chemical computers and they vary, don’t they, in emotions from day to day in different environments. So we’ll adapt as we go along. But we’ll just strive to make sure that every department’s doing its absolute best.
“And then reflecting and improving and reflecting and improving. And we believe that that will increase our development rate. If you increase your development rate, you overtake your opponents. And if you keep on improving your development rate, you stay ahead of your opponents,” summed up Cowell.
Here’s Aston Martin adding more sponsors
Here’s Aston Martin undertaking TPC run
Here’s Andy Cowell on 2026 and beyond
Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact