As Aston Martin prepares for its first season with design genius Adrian Newey, Group CEO and Team Principal Andy Cowell have revealed how the team plans to deploy him.
Aston Martin arguably pulled off a coup bigger than Lewis Hamilton’s shock switch to Ferrari when announcing the arrival of Adrian Newey.
The legendary car designer is behind some of the most successful cars in F1 history for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.
In 2025, he begins a new era at Aston Martin as a Technical Partner and shareholder in Lawrence Stroll’s team.
Stroll’s investment is substantial, and improvements have been made to the team’s Silverstone base, including a new wind tunnel.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Andy Cowell said ensuring cutting-edge facilities was crucial to harnessing the design genius’ creativity.
“Adrian is very competitive, he’s very creative, and as an organisation we need to harness that, not stifle it.
“All the people that operate in the creative area, how do we provide an amazing environment – both personally as you come to work, [and] as you work in the building with other people?
“How do we make sure the tools are top drawer – the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), the wind tunnel, the manufacturing facilities? And therefore I think that’s the thing that inspires creative people.”
Challenges ahead for Adrian Newey
Admitting Newey had to “put out the fires” at Aston Martin, Cowell said “tough targets” were needed to get the team to the front of the grid.
We’re working exceptionally hard to make the racing car our prime focus, to work together in a collaborative way, a high-performance team.
“We believe by working like that we’ll get quicker and quicker. We want to win races, we want to win championships, we would like our drivers to be first and second in the drivers’ championship, and we’d love to win back-to-back championships.
“That’s the dream, to have the racing green car to see the chequered flag first, and to do it race after race after race.
“But we’re realistic, we understand that our opponents are exceptionally strong and therefore we need to set tough targets, both in terms of performance and the time that we achieve them, and not leave any gaps, not have any regrets as we go forward.”
Aston Martin Restructure
Cowell also revealed more about the substantial restructure in January that saw Mike Krack move to Chief Trackside Officer and incoming Ferrari recruit Enrico Cardile Chief Technical Officer
“Lawrence was very clear that he wanted me to lead the team, work out what to do, how to inspire everybody, to set the mission, and do it. I’m enjoying that challenge.
“One of the first things that we do in the first few months is to look at the organisation and see how it’s working, and I think the changes that we’ve made help make the organisation more efficient.
“A flatter organisation, less layers of management, always makes communication better, makes it more efficient.
“My style is to go and see what’s going on, to see what’s happening within the engineering area, recruitment, IT, and to try to balance all of those areas up.”
Feature Image Credit: Aston Martin F1 Media Portal
