Adrian Newey pinpoints key area Aston Martin must strengthen F1 team

Adrian Newey has pinpointed Aston Martin's aerodynamics department as a key area of the F1 team which needs to grow.

Newey started as managing technical partner at the Silverstone squad earlier this year, and is currently working on producing a car for the all-new 2026 regulations, which feature major chassis changes as well as a power unit overhaul. 

Aston has invested heavily in brand-new facilities at its base, including a new factory and wind-tunnel, which is now on stream. 

Speaking about his new role, Newey highlighted the aero department as a key area for further investment. 

"We're pursuing various avenues. Whether those are different avenues to others and whether they will be a better avenue than others, we've got no idea.," he explained in an interview published by Aston Martin. 

"That's part of the intrigue of F1, especially when you get these big rule changes.

"It's always difficult, when you have a big regulation change like this, and all teams are resource-limited, because of the budget cap and simply because of staffing levels. 

"The team shapes the approach, to a certain extent.

"One area of our team that needs to grow is the aerodynamics department. 

"But in the short term, that means we've got to decide which directions are going to be the most fruitful and really concentrate our resources on those.

"Of course, in doing that, there’s always a danger that we've missed an avenue. Quite often, you have to go a long way down a certain branch before you know whether it's going to be a fruitful one or not.

"It's sometimes the case that a branch might not start off looking that promising, because it's very new and underdeveloped, but actually it's got more fruit at the end."