‘Intense’ Adrian Newey ‘exchanges’ uncovered as Honda issues Aston Martin update

Koji Watanabe, the president of the Honda Racing Corporation, has revealed that he “often” has a “quite intense exchange” of views with soon-to-be Aston Martin team boss Adrian Newey.

And he says the pair “laughed a lot” in their first meeting together at Aston Martin having previously achieved success at Red Bull.

Honda boss lifts lid on ‘quite intense’ Adrian Newey ‘exchanges’ at Aston Martin

Newey is currently leading the development of the AMR26 car for the F1 2026 season, the first year of Aston Martin’s new technical partnership with Honda.

Having originally joined the team in the role of managing technical partner in March, Aston Martin announced last month that Newey is to act as team principal from the start of next season.

Newey’s new role will see current team boss Andy Cowell take on the position of chief strategy officer, managing the three-way relationship between Aston Martin, Honda and fuel supplier Aramco.

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Newey and Watanabe worked closely at Red Bull between 2019 and 2024, helping Max Verstappen to four consecutive drivers’ titles from 2021 and the team to two constructors’ crowns in 2022/23.

In an interview with Aston Martin’s official website, Watanabe revealed that he and Newey could not help but laugh when they were reunited earlier this year.

He said: “We laughed a lot in the first meeting after he joined Aston Martin Aramco – it was very much a case of: ‘Well, here we are again!’

“It’s very exciting that he’s here and, of course, there is huge respect for him and his capabilities.

“In terms of power unit development, we have our processes and timetable for making a power unit that is capable and competitive and Adrian has been working from day one on doing the same for the chassis – so we’re working very closely and communicating a great deal at the point where those two things meet.”

Watanabe went on to admit that he often has “quite intense” conversations with Newey over the team’s development direction, with the F1 design guru known to be uncompromising in his approach to packaging.

He said: “Adrian is one of the people I communicate with frequently and it’s often a quite intense exchange of opinions, suggestions and feedback – but always with the focus on winning.

“Whenever we’re having a technical discussion about components or development, it’s always with the long-term focus on how we get the win.

“And that can be about anything: it might be a very detailed design issue, but equally it might be about competitor analysis, or how to manage people to get the best out of them, or even finance and using the limitations of the cost cap most effectively.”

Aston Martin announced earlier this month that the AMR26 will be officially launched on February 9, 10 days after the conclusion of the first pre-season test of F1 2026 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

As reported by PlanetF1.com last week, teams have received an unusual request to run a temporary livery during the behind-closed-doors test in Barcelona.

The 2026 cars are expected to appear in their race liveries at the second of three tests in Bahrain, scheduled for February 11-13.

Bahrain is understood to pay handsomely for the right to host testing, which has been televised in full over recent years.

The final test will also take place in Bahrain across February 18-20 ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 8.

Little is known about the progress of Aston Martin and Honda ahead of the launch of the AMR26.

In his first interview with Aston Martin in May, Newey admitted that the F1 2026 regulations offer “more flexibility for innovation and different approaches than first meets the eye.”

Newey’s comments echoed his thoughts on the ground-effect rules in 2022, when he made a similar admission that the regulations offered more scope for interpretation than he expected.

Red Bull went on to dominate the first year of the ground-effect era that season, with Verstappen setting a new record by winning 15 of the 22 races.

Verstappen’s dominance increased to 19 victories in 2023 as Red Bull won all but one race.

Newey’s assessment of the 2026 rules sparked suggestions that the 66-year-old may have identified a potential loophole in the new regulations.

Damon Hill, who won the 1996 world championship behind the wheel of a Williams produced by Newey, wrote on social media: “Hmmm.

“He’s found something.”

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