Adrian Newey makes one claim for Max Verstappen to join Aston Martin

Adrian Newey has outlined the only area Max Verstappen will be interested in if they are to be reunited at Aston Martin.

After 19 seasons with Red Bull, during which time the legendary designer helped Verstappen become a multiple winner of the F1 drivers' title, Newey departed the team a year ago, at that stage unsure of his future.

A few months on, Aston Martin confirmed it had signed the 66-year-old as its managing technical partner, eventually starting in March.

Over the intervening period since Newey departed Red Bull, there has been consistent speculation linking Verstappen to a move to the Silverstone-based team. Newey's design genius is a natural lure for the four-time champion.

Newey, however, has made it clear that neither he nor the inordinate sums of money that have been mentioned to prise Verstappen away from Red Bull to Aston Martin are the motivating factors behind a possible move.

"Max is clearly a phenomenal talent, and a supreme competitor," said Newey, speaking to select media, including RacingNews365, in Monaco on his first visit to a grand prix since joining Aston Martin.

"Part of that means that Max likes to break things down to a single, common equation, and in this particular case, choosing the team that he believes will deliver the fastest car.

"So if we're ever to attract Max, the first thing we have to do is make a fast car."

When he and the team could do that, with the new regulations looming next year, Newey replied: "I have absolutely no idea."

Asked by RacingNews365 if Verstappen could make the difference between Aston Martin being contenders and champions in the future, he said: "Max, as I said, is a phenomenal driver, phenomenal competitor. It's just pipe dreaming about anything else from there."

Fernando Alonso - enemy turned ally

As far as Newey is concerned, Aston Martin already has a driver line-up on which he feels it can rely.

Approaching the age of 44, Fernando Alonso shows no sign of slowing down. The two-time champion is physically, mentally and tactically as strong as at any time in his glorious career.

In the eyes of many observers, Lance Stroll only remains in F1 due to his father, Lawrence, who runs the team.

But Newey has strongly defended Stroll. He said: "Lance, I think, has an unfairly bad rap on average, for me, when you compare him against the team-mates he has been up against - Checo [Perez], Nico, Hulkenberg, Sebastian [Vettel], and now Fernando.

"He's been right there. Any driver who gets to Formula 1 is clearly very good, but I think Lance is much faster than people give him credit for."

Turning his attention to Alonso, Newey clearly has time for the Spanish driver and is now relishing the opportunity of working with him after being in opposition for so long.

"He's such a cool character," said Newey. "He's been an enemy for many years, along with Lewis [Hamilton].

"I think I've said before that you can only work with so many drivers, but two drivers, in the relatively modern area, I felt I'd enjoy working with are Lewis and Fernando. I didn't work with both, so at least I got one of them."