
Aston Martin may have signed Adrian Newey, but Anthony Davidson believes it will take more than the design legend to propel Aston Martin to the front of the grid.
Newey officially joins the Silverstone team on 2 March after a lengthy gardening leave period following his Red Bull exit.
Will Adrian Newey be Aston Martin’s ‘silver bullet’?
The Briton, who Red Bull team boss Christian Horner once again could “see air”, left Red Bull having designed eight championship-winning cars for the Milton Keynes squad to go with those he’d previously designed for McLaren and Williams.
Aston Martin are hoping he’ll do the same for them after a difficult 2024 season ended without a single podium in Aston Martin’s results.
Newey has been tasked with designing Aston Martin’s 2026 Formula 1 car, the first car in the forthcoming new regulatory era in which Formula 1 will put all-new cars on the grid as well as revised power units.
But asked whether Newey with his 25 championship titles could be Aston Martin’s “silver bullet, the magic ingredient”, Davidson was cautious on that.
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“I think it takes more than just Adrian Newey really does,” he told Sky F1.
“Well, you look at some drivers in top teams along through the seasons, the cars Adrian Newey and great engineers and designers have made wouldn’t have won World Championships if it wasn’t for the ultimate driver there to keep it sailing along.
“So that proves that it is a combination of not just driver and engineers, but the whole team is a team sport.
“And again, Adrian Newey would be nowhere if the pit stop crew was pathetic and kept dropping wheels and the wheel guns going flying.”
His fellow pundit David Croft agrees that Aston Martin need more than just Newey, they need cohesion which he believes has been lacking.
“We can take the point, Ant,” Croft said. “Aero is important, but if your vehicle dynamics aren’t any good, the chassis is not any good, you can bolt whatever you want on there, it’s still not going to work.
“I think the problem with Aston Martin is, I think there’s been a disconnect between various departments at Silverstone, and there’s not a cohesion working across all of the engineering departments and that’s kind of what needs putting right.”
Last week Aston Martin announced a leadership reshuffle with Group CEO Andy Cowell replacing Mike Krack as team principal for the F1 2025 championship.
Just three months after Cowell joined Aston Martin, he’s revamped the way things are run in what the team billed as a “flatter” structure.
Cowell takes up the dual role of CEO and team boss while Krack has moved into the new position of chief trackside officer with his focus being on performance at the Grands Prix.
Newey is only clear to join Aston Martin in March and reckons that’s putting him two months behind Aston Martin’s rivals, including his former team Red Bull as they could begin working on the 2026 cars on 1 January.
He told Autocar: “So obviously, Aston wants to do the best job they can in ’25, but my main kind of focus will be the ’26 regulations and this big change, because I start on March 2.
“The aero rules come out, I think, 1 January, or might be the second, whatever the working day is.
“So I’ll already be kind of two months behind the curve. But in truth, of course, it’s more than that, because not only will I be behind on the looking at those regulations compared to when they’ve come out…
“With the way the regulations have gone, you really need to be in front of a CAD [computer-aided design] system as well, to be able to understand all the boxes and so forth. They’re so prescribed.
“But also, it will be getting to know a new team, getting to know all the guys and girls there and how we all work together.”
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