Aston Martin reveals how Newey pushed team with two-year "handicap" comments

While Aston Martin continues to endure a difficult 2025 campaign, the team’s full focus behind the scenes is on 2026.

That includes, unsurprisingly, the work of Adrian Newey. Since joining Aston Martin in March, the legendary designer has been focused entirely on the upcoming regulations, apart from some “lunch break meetings” with technical personnel about this year’s challenger.

Newey’s first weeks were primarily about observing – getting to know the team, identifying weaknesses, and above all finding areas for improvement. That applied to operational aspects, which is why Newey attended several race weekends including the Monaco Grand Prix, but also to Aston Martin’s technical infrastructure.

In the principality, Newey told a select group of media including Autosport that the team’s driver-in-the-loop simulator was not yet at the required level, and described it as a “significant handicap” for two years. Team principal and CEO Andy Cowell quickly downplayed that statement, saying it was more a matter of months rather than years.

Now, several months later, Cowell shares a light-hearted anecdote about Newey’s statements in Monaco during an exclusive interview with Autosport: “After Adrian did the interview, and as he walked away from that interview, he whispered in my ear and said, yeah, I just said two years, because I know it'll push the guys along. And we just smiled and had a laugh about it!”

According to Cowell, Newey’s comments have indeed pushed the team to prove him wrong.

Adrian Newey, Managing Technical Partner of Aston Martin F1

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

“There's a lot of work going on to push the simulation, to make it more representative, and to make the cockpit environment more representative. There's a concerted effort to improve, and also to make sure that Adrian isn't focused on that. We want to make sure that he can be fully focused on something else,” Cowell said, referring to designing the fastest possible car under F1's new ruleset for 2026.

The way Newey’s comments were received internally says a lot about Aston Martin’s ambition, Cowell added: “That's the thing I love about the team spirit. We've all got pride in the areas that we're working on, and that's exactly the same within Aston Martin Formula 1 team.

“So the people looking after the driver-in-the-loop simulator, of course they took that badly, but the way they're responding is by working even harder together.”

Cowell also pointed to the added value of Ferrari recruit Enrico Cardile, who has started at Aston Martin just over two months ago. While Newey focuses on the design of the 2026 car, Cardile is responsible for aligning all the technical departments in the Silverstone campus.

“Enrico's pulling all of that together. With Enrico's experience, he's pulling those groups together for the good of the tools and for the good of the race car,” Cowell explained.

That includes the driver-in-the-loop simulator, meaning Cowell is confident that it will not be a “two-year handicap” – as Newey claimed. The desired effect of his comments in Monaco was achieved, according to the team boss at least.