The Editor: Aston Martin’s F1 chances with Adrian Newey on the payroll

Jeremy Clarkson, strangely, called it early, when he said at the British GP that his fellow old Reptonian was house hunting in Oxfordshire, not Maranello. At the time the speculation about where Adrian Newey would end up going after he announced his departure from troubled Red Bull was reaching fever pitch: a dream-team partnership with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari? A romantic return to rescue struggling Williams? Sailing off into the sunset on his new Oyster 885 yacht… ?

But by the time it was officially announced last month that the man who is probably the greatest F1 engineer of all time would be joining Aston Martin it was little more than confirmation of what had been an open secret for weeks.

The manner in which the appointment was officially revealed was telling in itself: a full-on press conference complete with live mic, questions from the assembled press corps and an appearance from both drivers alongside the owner Lawrence Stroll and his new Managing Technical Partner. As far as I can remember it is the only time that such an event had been staged for a mere engineer (as opposed to a driver).

That’s a measure of the importance of the move and of the reputation of the 65-year-old who began his career at Fittipaldi and whose cars have won 13 world championships for three different teams. Mark Hughes vividly describes Newey’s unique genius on page 70 revealing him to be more than just a clever engineer with a grasp of the rules.

“Within the engineer’s brain is an artist’s perception,” writes Mark. “He can conjure ideas from the air. But he’s also got a better grasp than anyone else of all the performance parameters, how they interrelate and how those relationships change. He can translate what his drivers tell him to the dynamics behind those sensations. He knows where all the levers are and how much to pull on each one at any given moment or set of regulations.”

The appointment also lays to rest any doubts about the long-term intentions of Stroll. There had been murmurings that the Canadian billionaire was tiring of his expensive foray into F1. His mission to support his son’s racing career had been partially successful and as the value of existing F1 teams soared in the wake of its growth in popularity under the stewardship of Liberty and the difficulty of new teams to break into the sport, some suspected that he might consider selling at the top of the market and moving on. No such speculation now. His courtship of Newey and vast investment in him to the tune of £30m a year including performance related bonus’s is proof that Stroll’s ambition is far from sated and that he is not done with F1 yet.

“His courtship of Newey is proof that Stroll’s ambition is far from sated”

Snaring his man with an enticing mix of old-fashioned cash plus a canny appeal to Newey’s dislike of management (Newey will report directly to Stroll and have a stake in the company too) could come to be seen as Stroll’s greatest business deal yet. It also catapults Aston Martin straight into the premier league of teams in terms of reputation: top talent – whether drivers or technical staff – will see the Silverstone based outfit as the real deal, a place to carve a career and achieve success. It is no longer a rebranded Force India with shiny new offices. It is now a heavyweight proposition, albeit one with no silverware to show – yet.

One of Newey’s first jobs will be to make sense of all the investment Stroll has already committed and ensuring that the team is more than the sum of its expensively collected parts.

As we explain on page 74 Aston Martin now has a galaxy of stars in its engineering team. But where once there was a suspicion that Stroll was simply buying up the best with no thought to how they would gel – Andy Cowell from Mercedes AMG HPP, Enrico Cardile from Ferrari, Dan Fallows from Red Bull – now it is becoming clear how all these class-leading individuals will come together as part of a team alongside Newey. No wonder Stroll referred to the signing as the “final piece of the jigsaw”.

This part of the job will appeal to Newey. In a piece he wrote for Motor Sport for the July issue about his career and how the sport had changed over the years (penned, it now turns out, at around the time he had been given a private and top secret tour of the Aston Martin facility) he gave a hint about how he sees his role at new teams.

“I joined Red Bull in 2006 from McLaren with a blank canvas to work from. That ability to mould the team and create the right environment to stimulate and encourage creativity I hope made it attractive for good engineers to join.”

He continued: “We won our first race in 2009 and became world champions with Sebastian Vettel in 2010 – a relatively short time. I actually needed to spend more time developing the infrastructure and less time concentrating on the design of the car. That’s very much what we did through 2008, knowing that we had an opportunity with a big regulation change in 2009.”

The big regulation change is coming sooner this time around – only a year after he starts at Aston Martin. A lot can happen in F1 but no one is betting that his impact at the team won’t be of a similar magnitude as it was at Red Bull.

One thing is for certain however: by signing Newey, Lawrence Stroll has changed the balance of power in Formula 1.

Joe Dunn, editor
Follow Joe on Twitter @joedunn90