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Aston Martin is still hoping to convince Adrian Newey to join when he finally leaves Red Bull next year, although no contract is believed to have been signed.
Various teams have made contact over signing Newey since his shock Red Bull exit was announced in May - with Ferrari initially seen as the favourite to get the most celebrated designer in F1 history.
Reports in Italian media since then, though, have suggested that the prospect of a big-money 'super-consultant' hire like this has become more unlikely for Ferrari.
Other teams linked with Newey have been McLaren, which has ruled itself out of signing him, and Williams, whose team boss James Vowles has publicly expressed his interest.
But Aston Martin has been most consistently mentioned, with speculation growing from Aston merely being in pursuit of Newey to being the favourite to sign him. It was even reported in Italy during the summer break that a deal had been agreed.
The Race understands that Aston Martin is still chasing Newey and that a strong offer has been made that Newey is yet to formally accept. This could be a formality - but it may also indicate that the key details haven't been thrashed out and Newey still needs to decide what he wants.
While it is believed he cannot disclose his next move until September, as part of an agreement with Red Bull, that is not a deadline – Newey could take as much time as he desires.
“I was on holiday over the summer break, so cannot really comment on that,” Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack said when asked how much momentum the bid to get Newey had gained.
“We are becoming a more and more attractive team. We have great structure, infrastructure developing.
“We are honoured to be put together with that name.”
There is still no guarantee Newey wants to recommit to F1, even though he said in May that he expects that to be the case eventually after some time off.
He cannot join another team until March 2025 so still has a lengthy period of gardening leave ahead of him in which to decide.
Since his Red Bull departure was announced, Newey’s Red Bull work has been dominated by the final preparations for the unveiling of Newey’s RB17 hypercar. It was revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and although Newey is still likely to have a presence at F1 races until the end of the year his priority now is the sale of the remaining RB17s.
Nothing precludes Newey firming up his future in the meantime, though, if he decides to. And if F1 appeals then the Aston Martin project is arguably the most ambitious available. It is being backed substantially by chairman Lawrence Stroll and will be Honda’s works team in 2026.
“When I joined, I went into the old brick house of the former Jordan factory, and if you pass from the A43 into Silverstone you see this has massively changed,” Krack said when asked by The Race if Aston Martin’s growth meant it was ready for someone of Newey’s calibre.
“So, from that point of view it's a completely different structure, a completely different team. The headcount has almost doubled since.
“This paired with the ambition and everything that goes into these buildings I think makes us very attractive for the future.”
Krack also strongly indicated that Aston Martin would be willing to accommodate Newey in a floating role akin to what he had grown into at Red Bull, where he has held a formal job title of chief technology officer but had freedom to influence the F1 programme at his own discretion.
There are essentially two factors to consider wherever Newey goes: can it all work structurally, to accommodate his unique demands, and will it work in practice?
Where Aston Martin is concerned, it can work. The team has clear senior technical positions filled, which means Newey’s part-time approach can be encouraged - the team doesn’t need him to do a full-time job and he won’t be forced to do one, which makes it more appealing to join, and can bring the best out of him.
“Someone like that, you have to make any kind of effort to integrate and adjust your structure to get the best out of it,” said Krack.
Whether it would work, though, remains a huge question mark and can only be answered if he joins. It is a major cultural test to accommodate someone outside of the normal structure, as one of the issues cited at Red Bull in recent years has been Newey getting credit for its successes and the official technical team being left in the shadows.
Aston Martin has recruited a lot of senior technical figures as it builds towards 2026 and the new set of car and engine regulations. Given the signings of Andy Cowell, Bob Bell and Enrico Cardile to add to the established senior engineers Dan Fallows, Eric Blandin and Tom McCullough, where would Newey fit?
The answer to that is the one-step-removed creative magic dust Newey always provides - the left-field original solutions, the big-picture intuitive feel for all the performance factors and how they interact. That’s quite aside from the intimate knowledge of what has made Red Bull the formidable force it’s been over the last few years.
With Cowell as an engineering-focussed CEO, the potential is there for the greatest engine designer and greatest chassis engineer of their eras to combine, with Bob Bell overseeing the expansion of the facilities, maximising their usefulness and working with Cowell in fully integrating with Honda.
Newey could feed into that process, just as he would feed into the work done by Cardile, Fallows and co. in the conception of the actual car.
There doesn’t need to be a Newey-shaped vacancy for him to fit into. It needs an organisation capable of accommodating him and his special skillset. Whether that’s Aston Martin is the big unknown - along with, of course, what Newey actually wants to do.
