If there is one thing that Adrian Newey’s arrival at Aston Martin has, it is that it unequivocally conveys the roadmap that the executives of the British team have set out, with Lawrence Stroll at the helm. The Canadian magnate has got it into his head to make the brand that made James Bond famous popular for the performance of its Formula 1 cars, apart from the glamour and luxury that the films of the agent with a license to kill always project. Stroll first recruited Fernando Alonso (2023), who took over from Sebastian Vettel when the German hung up his suit (2022). Now he has made a statement and has managed to convince the most influential engineer of the modern era to join his crusade for next year. The incorporation of Newey has an obvious intimidating effect, even though the most tangible fruits of his signing will not be seen, at the earliest, until 2026, the date on which the new technical regulations come into play. In any case, with Tuesday’s event, Stroll has already managed to give a boost to a team that was beginning to show signs of exhaustion and stagnation.
The decline compared to last year is unquestionable and is reflected in the numbers, both individual and collective. At this point in 2023, Alonso was fourth in the general table, with 174 points, while Lance Stroll, his neighbour and the owner’s son, was tenth, with 47 points. A year later, on the eve of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to be held this Sunday (13.00, Dazn), the Asturian has lost five positions (he is ninth) and 124 points, while his teammate is back to tenth, but with only 24 points in his account. In Baku, the Spaniard will start eighth, far from the pole position The team will take the lead from Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in third place. Stroll will start 15th on the stage where he first took the podium (2017). That goal seems impossible at the moment for either of them if we take into account the lack of power of the AMR24, a car that after 16 races still has not accumulated a podium.
As you might expect, Newey’s hiring is intended to turn around the drop in performance of the green car, but it is unlikely that the revitalisation will materialise in the short term, a circumstance that makes it even more difficult for the man from Oviedo to benefit from it, given that he has already celebrated his 43rd birthday. Although it is true that the aerodynamic genius is already at retirement age (65 years old), his commitment to the Silverstone team is total after becoming a partner. This means that, despite being more than 20 years older than Alonso, Newey has more time than the man from Oviedo to make a difference. Above all, because despite the pomp of his presentation, with a press conference included at the Aston Martin headquarters, the presence of the pair of drivers and a large group of invited press, the Stratford-upon-Avon technician will not be able to take up his new position as top technical manager until March 2.
Until that day, the gardening The agreement with Red Bull, with whom he still has a contract, not only prevents him from actively working for his new company, but, on paper, he cannot even speak on the phone with his future colleagues about anything related to the car he may have in mind. In essence, the spirit of this clause that appears in all relevant personnel agreements is to avoid benefiting the competition, something that has become very difficult to control since the pandemic changed work dynamics and encouraged teleworking.
Despite not being actively involved in the day-to-day running of Red Bull since the Japanese Grand Prix in early April, Newey has continued to travel to the odd race. He was seen in Miami and is likely to be in Austin as well, and remains linked to the Red Buffalo team as he was in charge of designing the RB17, a supercar of which only 50 units will be built and which will be priced at just over seven million euros. “I will continue to work on the RB17 until after March 1. Not so much from the factory anymore, but talking to the guys, via video conference, or by email,” the protagonist of the week recently commented on the podcast High Performance“Aston introduced Adrian a little bit prematurely, as it was before his contract with Red Bull had ended. But it was obviously a great moment for that team,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said from Baku.
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