Max Verstappen out to break remarkable 'Adrian Newey curse' in 2025

Adrian Newey has now officially started work at Aston Martin as managing technical partner, with the Silverstone squad hopeful he can turn their fortunes around and into a world-championship-challenging team. 

Newey is regarded as F1's most successful designer, with 14 drivers' titles split across seven drivers, including his first with Nigel Mansell in 1992 and his last, to date, with Max Verstappen in 2024, although he had already announced his exit by the time the Dutchman wrapped the crown up in Las Vegas.

Those seven drivers, responsible for 231 grand prix wins, also share a remarkable fact in that none of them have ever won the title again in a Newey-designed car. 

After his 1992 success, Mansell found that Williams were keen to crowbar Alain Prost in for 1993, and a renewal of their Ferrari hostilities from 1989-1990 was not on the cars, so took his title to IndyCar, with Prost settling in alongside Damon Hill for '93.

Prost then what could charitably be described as 'cruised' to his fourth title and quit as the new world champion, with Hill scopping Newey's third drivers' title in 1996.

But the Briton was already leaving Williams after Sir Frank had decided to boot him for Heinz-Harald Frentzen, much to Newey's chagrin. Hill would head for Arrows and then Jordan by 1998, with Newey having quit Williams to sign for McLaren. 

Getting his hands on the all-new technical regulations for 1998, the narrow-track MP4-13 was the class of the field, with Mika Hakkinen storming to the drivers' crown and giving Newey his fifth drivers' title in seven years - the missing two being the 1994 and 1995 successes of Michael Schumacher.

Hakkinen would defend his crown in 1999, just, but the effort required to take the fight to Schumacher took too much out of the Finn, who by the end of 2001 was headed for a sabbatical turned retirement.

As Schumacher and Ferrari then went about destroying the record books, Newey would go over a decade without any title success, until Sebastian Vettel stole the 2010 crown off Fernando Alonso in the Abu Dhabi finale. 

This ushered in Newey's most successful spell, as cars in which he designed won the drivers' and constructors' titles four years on the trot between 2010-2013 as Vettel became 'the man to beat.'

But even he could not repeat the trick after leaving a Newey car, scooping 15 wins at Ferrari and coming close to title success in 2017 and 2018, but ultimately falling short against the juggernaut of Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. 

After spending those Hamilton years in the shadows, Newey's RB16B of 2021 was able to carry Verstappen to the title, as the 'Verstappen era' began, with the quadruple champion aiming to become only the second driver after Michael Schumacher to win five straight drivers' titles.

But to do so, he will have to become the first world champion to win post-Newey, who has now directed most of his attention onto Aston Martin's 2026 programme as Fernando Alonso craves a third F1 crown.