Aston Martin CEO and Team Principal Andy Cowell said the Formula 1 outfit is prepared “to adapt” its processes as design chiefs Adrian Newey and Enrico Cardile come on board.
Newey will begin work at Aston Martin’s Silverstone Campus on Monday, March 3, taking up the position of Managing Technical Partner.
He will be welcomed by Cowell’s reorganised technical structure, which saw the Aston Martin CEO displace Mike Krack as Team Principal.
Krack is now in charge of on-track development as Chief Trackside Officer, whereas incoming Chief Technical Officer Enrico Cardile will head development back at HQ when he officially takes up his new post after departing Ferrari last year.
Newey and Cardile’s relationship at Aston Martin will be integral to ensuring the design of its 2026 F1 challenger runs smoothly.
However, Cowell was unable to provide an update on when Cardile is due to start work in Silverstone, but hastened to add that work on its 2026 challenger is progressing and new faces will only complement that process when they come aboard.
“There’s a big group of people already working on the 2026 car, pushing forwards,” Cowell told select media including Motorsport Week in Bahrain.
“As we add people in, then we get stronger and increased capacity, increased experience just helps push us forwards.”
Newey and Cowell fitting into ‘more efficient’ Aston Martin structure
Cowell arrived at Aston Martin in October, taking several months to asses team operations before implementing his new structure, which he describes as “flatter” and “more efficient”.
That doesn’t mean the team won’t adapt things as its prominent figures start work and Cowell believes adapting as they go along will boost performance regardless of who is in the organisation.
“We’ll adapt as we go along, but we’ll just strive to make sure that every department’s doing its absolute best and then reflecting and improving and reflecting and improving,” he said.
“And we believe that that will increase our development rate.
“If you increase your development rate, you overtake your opponents. And if you keep on improving your development rate, you stay ahead of your opponents.
Still, with Newey’s role not defined in Cowell’s new leadership structure at Aston Martin, the only real proof that will be provided of him fitting in seamlessly will come with time.
Aston Martin ‘excited’ for Newey to get ‘stuck into’ 2026 F1 car
As Cardile’s arrival at Aston Martin remains under wraps, the team has just days until it welcomes Newey into the Silverstone factory as Managing Technical Partner.
Newey’s track record speaks for itself and he leaves a trail of title-winning innovative cars in his wake from Red Bull, McLaren and Williams.
Aston Martin will hope Newey’s knowledge will coalesce with a brand-new wind tunnel, state-of-the-art simulator, Honda works power and Aramco sustainable fuels to produce a genuine contender for 2026’s new regulations.
“Everybody’s super excited to work with Adrian,” said Cowell.
“His record speaks for itself. So we’re looking forward to welcoming him on site, doing an induction for a new employee and starting work on introducing him to the key technical players within our business, showing him the business tools for engineering the car, and then getting stuck into creating a 2026 car and helping the improvements on 2025.”
READ MORE – Fernando Alonso: Adrian Newey ‘impact’ at Aston to be greater than Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari
