Adrian Newey has offered a slightly curious explanation for Aston Martin making him team principal next year – suggesting it has happened largely because he was attending the first Formula 1 races of 2026 anyway and it does not add much to his workload.
As part of a management shake-up at Aston Martin, its previous team boss and CEO Andy Cowell is moving into a new strategic advisory role to help strengthen the relationship between the team, engine partner Honda and fuel supplier Aramco.
Cowell has proved his strength in power unit integration, having led Mercedes' engine project to multiple world championships in the turbo hybrid era.
His shift of responsibilities has resulted in Newey expanding his role for the start of next season to become a team principal for the first time in his career.
However, the surprise move has prompted questions about whether his extra tasks risk distracting Newey over the long term from his core responsibility of leading Aston Martin's car design project.
That situation, allied to Aston Martin not replacing Cowell as CEO just yet, has fuelled talk that there could be further senior management changes on the horizon next year.
The chief speculation has revolved around former Red Bull boss Christian Horner, who is known to have had talks with Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll about a potential involvement that would include a shareholding.
While nothing has been decided on that front, and Horner has other options that includes setting up his own 12th team, the idea of the door being open for someone else to come in has been fuelled by Newey suggesting that his new role mainly revolved around his plans for early next year.
He also suggested that Cowell's new position was only temporary for the first half of 2026.
Speaking to Sky at the Qatar Grand Prix, Newey said it just made sense to make him team principal because he planned to be present at the opening races next year.
"To be perfectly honest, it became very evident that, with the challenge of the '26 PU and Andy's skillset in terms of helping the three way relationship between Honda, Aramco and ourselves, it is absolutely his skillset," said Newey.
"So he very magnanimously volunteered to be heavily involved in that through the first part of '26.
"That left a kind of, 'OK, who's going to be TP?' And since I'm going to be doing all the early races anyway, it doesn't actually particularly change my workload, because I'm there anyway, so I may as well pick up that bit."
While having the team principal role beyond his managing technical partner position will almost certainly bring extra responsibilities, Newey is adamant that he will not allow it to distract from his priority of making the best car possible.
"That's really what I want to and need to do," he said. "That's what gets me out of bed in the morning. So I'm determined not to dilute that."
There could be a scenario where Newey assumes the team principal role in the short term, while Aston Martin finalises a management structure that will bed it down to the long term.
As well as a potential move for Horner, Aston Martin has also been linked with former McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl.
