UNBELIEVABLE DISCOUNTS AT AMAZON.COM ||
Newey has his work cut out at Aston Martin. As he pointed out, the new aerodynamics rules for 2026 will be released at the beginning of January, and he does not start work until March.
“It will be a case of getting myself up to speed as quickly as possible, and just as importantly getting to know everyone here as quickly as possible, and how we get the best out of each other,” he said.
“They [the new rules] are an opportunity. Whether we will be able to capitalise on that, we just don’t know. I don’t spend too long fretting on these things. Just get on and do the best we can.”
How will he perform his role as managing technical partner? He joins forces again with technical director Dan Fallows, who was head of aerodynamics at Red Bull under Newey before joining Aston Martin in early 2022.
Newey, Fallows said on Tuesday, “goes where he thinks he can add value”. He draws the fundamentals of the car layout on his fabled drawing board, analyses reports, sits in some meetings, and contributes and asks questions and guides where he feels it is needed.
Newey is a brilliant man, but he is not an egotist. He is happy to embrace any engineering idea, whatever its provenance, as long as it makes the car faster.
And just his mere presence will energise belief in the team.
Fernando Alonso, whose contract lasts until the end of 2026, has waited more than 20 years to finally get a chance to work with Newey, and has been deprived of at least two world titles by the Englishman’s genius.
Newey jokingly called Alonso an “arch-rival” over many years. Alonso said: “I would say Adrian was more an inspiration thanks to his talent and cars. We all got better as a driver, as engineers; we all had to raise the bar thanks to him, to be able to compete.”
If history is anything to go by, that bar may be about to be raised again.
