Adrian Newey swerved a question regarding Christian Horner potentially joining Aston Martin, but confirmed that "minor tweaks" could be made to the team's management.
Horner is known to be exploring opportunities to return to F1 after being sacked by Red Bull in July 2025, with his period of gardening leave ending in spring 2026.
He is known to have been in discussions with BYD over a potential 12th team entry, and has also been heavily linked with Aston Martin and Alpine, where he shares a strong relationship with Flavio Briatore.
It is understood that Horner is only interested in returning to F1 in a more senior position than the team principal and CEO role he held at Red Bull, namely by becoming a stakeholder in a team, and not merely just as an employee, as he was Red Bull.
Horner and Newey worked together at Red Bull between 2005 and 2024, when Newey stepped down as chief technical officer, during which time they won over 100 grands prix and claimed eight drivers' and six constructors' titles.
However, when asked directly about a reunion with his former boss, Newey swerved the question.
"I keep hearing these rumours about Christian; I can’t comment further, I don't really know anything about that," Newey told media, including RacingNews365, when asked if he would like to work with Horner again.
"All I can say is that we’re very happy with our senior management team. We may do some minor tweaks, but the personnel we have at Aston Martin Racing, we’re very happy with.
"In terms of the organisation of the senior members in the team, we will probably do a little bit more tweaking, but we’re very happy with the personnel.
"Then, in terms of the culture of the team, I think we are making great strides. In deciding, post-Melbourne, to delay development of the car until now and concentrate on integrating, getting people together, developing the culture, developing tools, taking a bit of pressure off ourselves, taking a deep breath and looking at how we needed to develop.
"I feel that’s progressing very well and the technical evolution, in terms of the car we’re bringing here and then the updates that we’ll be bringing to Zandvoort and on to Baku, I feel there have been very strong steps.
"We’re clearly playing a big catch-up game. Is it going to make us the quickest car? Unfortunately, not. But does it represent a good step forward from where we were? Yes, I believe it does."
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