Adrian Newey holds Red Bull RB21 inspection at Qatar Grand Prix

Adrian Newey, the soon-to-be Aston Martin team principal, was spotted inspecting Max Verstappen’s Red Bull RB21 car on the grid at the Qatar Grand Prix.

It comes after the F1 design guru was captured by PlanetF1.com taking a close look at the McLaren MCL39 for the third time this season at Lusail.

Adrian Newey inspects Max Verstappen’s Red Bull RB21 at Qatar Grand Prix

Newey left Red Bull in 2024 after almost 20 years with the Milton Keynes outfit, where he played an instrumental role in the team’s success with the likes of Verstappen and fellow four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.

The 66-year-old linked up with Aston Martin ahead of the first race of the F1 2025 season in March, taking the newly created role of managing technical partner as well as becoming a team shareholder.

Aston Martin announced ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix that Newey will assume of role of team principal ahead of next season, the first year of the team’s highly anticipated technical partnership with Red Bull’s current engine supplier Honda.

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The reshuffle will see Andy Cowell, the current team boss, become chief strategy officer to manage the relationship between the Aston Martin team, Honda and fuel partner Aramco.

Newey made his third trackside appearance with Aston Martin in Qatar following previous paddock visits at Monaco and Silverstone earlier this season.

The veteran designer is famous for taking the opportunity to study the cars of rival teams on the grid in Qatar.

And Newey was spotted taking a close look at Verstappen’s RB21 on the grid at Lusail (below).

Newey later turned his attention back to the MCL39 ahead of Sunday’s race, studying the championship-winning car of 2025 for the fourth time in three race appearances for the Aston Martin man this season.

As reported by PlanetF1.com on Saturday in Qatar, the McLaren of Lando Norris also caught Newey’s eye ahead of the sprint race in Qatar.

The incoming Aston Martin team boss was spotted paying close attention to the rear-right area of Norris’s car on Saturday before studying the left-front corner ahead of Sunday’s main event.

PlanetF1.com’s on-the-ground reporter Thomas Maher was there to witness Newey inspecting McLaren for the third race this season (below).

Newey explained the logic behind his move to the team principal’s position in Qatar, revealing that Cowell “volunteered” to help manage the relationship between Aston Martin, Honda and Aramco in early 2026.

He told Sky F1: “To be perfectly honest, it became very evident that, with the challenge of the ’26 PU, Andy’s skillset, in terms of helping the three-way relationship between Honda, Aramco and ourselves, is absolutely his skillset,” Newey told Kravitz.

“So he very magnanimously volunteered to be heavily involved in that through the first part of ’26.

“And that left [the question]: ‘OK, well who’s going to be TP?’

“Since I’m going to be doing all the early races anyway, it doesn’t actually particularly change my workload because I’m there anyway, so I may as well pick up that bit.”

Newey went on to insist that he is “determined” to ensure that his new role does not compromise his duties on the design and development side as work continues on the new AMR25 car for F1 2026.

He added: “That’s really what I want to and need to do.

“That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning, so I’m determined not to dilute that.”

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