Aston Martin developing 2026 F1 car faster than ever with Adrian Newey’s input

Aston Martin team principal and CEO Andy Cowell has detailed the changes he has seen in the team's development since Adrian Newey joined.

The former Red Bull chief technology officer began working for the Silverstone outfit as managing technical partner and shareholder in March 2025, and is focused on the upcoming 2026 regulation changes. 

"He's got great experience but the thing he loves is being at the drawing board thinking about the design of a racing car," Cowell explained to F1.com.

"And it's not just one part on the racing car, it's the whole system and so since March, he's spent hour after hour after hour at his drawing board just thinking about suspension concepts, the monocoque, where to put the engine, how to position the driver – all those detail architectural aspects of the race car.

"He's adventurous, he's creative and adventurous and he pushes the boundaries and so everybody's got less volume to fit more components in and that inspires the engineers. They look at it initially and go 'How am I going to do that?' But they are finding ways and Adrian helps with that.

"He doesn't just give a problem. He helps giving detailed solutions as well and the whole supply chain, in there in the factory, is enjoying working on that.

"From an idea on Adrian's drawing board to then having it running in the wind tunnel requires the model designers to create the parts and manufacturing and suppliers and bringing it all together and making sure it's a high-quality model in the wind tunnel. So we're doing that quicker than we've ever done before which is exciting."

Adrian Newey, Managing Technical Partner of Aston Martin F1 on the grid

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

Cowell explained that the pace at which the team is developing the 2026 car is faster than ever before. 

"Having Adrian join us since March, firing up the drawing board, and the machine that is required downstream of that, has just added some extra impetus to what we're doing for '26," he added.

"[Ahead of the British Grand Prix] we had both Fernando [Alonso] and Lance [Stroll] in the wind tunnel section with the model and Adrian. Adrian was talking about the features on the model. He pushes the boundaries.

"He packages ten things into the space where only one would normally fit, and all the engineers see that as a challenge. It's not just the engineers, it's the whole group of people within the aerodynamics development area.

"The pace with which we're creating changes on the '26 wind tunnel model is quicker than we've ever done before. It really is very impressive. It is like watching 100 people all run 100 metres sub-ten seconds, with perfect baton passes.

"It's very exciting to see and all of that is enabled by having the facilities, and the people and the methods. So yeah, it's an exciting journey into '26."