Adrian Newey leads Aston Martin search for new team principal

Aston Martin is seeking a new team principal to work alongside Adrian Newey to strengthen its top-level management.

The process of finding a new team principal is said to have begun in late 2025, commencing upon Newey’s assumption of the team principal position to succeed Andy Cowell.

Adrian Newey leads Aston Martin team principal search

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Adrian Newey is at the forefront of Aston Martin’s search for a new team principal, PlanetF1.com can reveal, with the 67-year-old leading the squad’s evaluation of the market over recent months – even before the switch that saw him replace Andy Cowell, and long before the realisation of its current on-track struggles.

Newey stepped into the team principal role at Aston Martin in November 2025, eight months after starting work at Lawrence Stroll’s squad as managing technical partner. Crucially, Newey had been tempted by a minority shareholding, placing him above any existing management in the company’s hierarchy.

Cowell, who had been the team boss at Aston Martin, had been tempted out of a years-long sabbatical from F1 to take up the senior role but, following Newey’s arrival, is believed to have had fundamental disagreements with him on the direction of the team’s development and focus – perhaps not surprising, given Cowell’s background is in power units, while Newey’s is in aerodynamics.

Cowell thus found himself moved aside, with his new responsibility falling in the area of power unit integration.

“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 Sky F1 following the switch.

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

Newey taking over the principal role was somewhat surprising, given all the extra administrative and public-facing responsibilities it entails, with Newey known for being a reluctant public figure and, instead, preferring to focus on car performance and departmental optimisation.

But his self-appointment in the leadership role always had an air of the temporary about it, and Newey did little to dispel that notion.

“That left [the question], ‘OK, well who’s going to be TP?’” he said, emphasising that he was determined not to “dilute” his focus away from car design.

“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.”

Indeed, sources at the time of the change in management structure indicated a hypothetical six-month timeline for Newey to take on the role, and PlanetF1.com understands that a lengthy period of evaluation and negotiation with several candidates for the role has been underway since even before last season’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.

With Newey and chief technical officer Enrico Cardile, who arrived in August 2025 after serving gardening leave from Ferrari, finding their feet at the head of the team’s technical structure, it’s understood that optimisation for the future has been a key focus, after identifying shifting priorities and differing directions within the organisation.

Several names are said to have been approached for the role, including former Aston Martin Group CEO Martin Whitmarsh. A former team principal at McLaren, he was responsible for overseeing the burgeoning Aston Martin Performance Technologies branch, and he left the role for retirement in October ’24 following the arrival of Cowell.

GianPiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s race engineer and Red Bull’s head of racing, is also understood to have been approached, with Newey having detailed knowledge of his strengths following years of working together at the Milton Keynes-based squad.

However, Lambiase is said to have turned down the opportunity and remains contentedly in his current role at Red Bull.

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Both senior management figures at Audi, Mattia Binotto and Jonathan Wheatley, are also believed to have negotiated with Aston Martin and, while Binotto is said to have turned down a switch, an offer made to Wheatley is yet to be addressed. Sources have suggested that, while Wheatley is said to be very happy with his Audi principal role having swapped to Hinwil, personal life considerations could trigger a desire to return to living in the UK.

A leading candidate is understood to be former McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl, whose name has been linked with the role for months. He was most recently the CEO of the Sauber Group, a role he departed in the second half of 2024.

Seidl is believed to be enjoying downtime away from Formula 1, but it’s understood that the German engineer is the preferred option for Aston Martin at this point, as well as being the most likely to be available at shorter notice: currently employed names such as Binotto and Wheatley would logically have to serve extended periods of gardening leave before being able to join a rival.

The other name that remains a potential possibility is that of Christian Horner, the former team principal and CEO of Red Bull.

Horner’s agreed period of absence from Formula 1 is believed to come to an end in the coming months, meaning he could be available to start work by the time the European leg of the Formula 1 season begins.

Given that Stroll tempted Newey to join by way of a minority shareholding, Horner’s desire to return to F1 as a partner with equity within a team could be fulfilled in similar fashion.

Horner is known to be one of several parties bidding for the 24 per cent stake in the Alpine F1 team currently owned by US investment company Otro Capital, with one of the rival bidders understood to be a Mercedes effort spearheaded by Toto Wolff.

With the process of finding a new team principal having commenced several months ago, it’s unclear why the vacancy is yet to be filled. Sources have suggested that a stumbling block could be a seeking of assurances that a similar outcome won’t befall a new hire as what happened with Cowell, given Newey’s hands-on involvement and position in the company hierarchy.

It could also be viewed as Aston Martin taking its time in ensuring the right hire for the medium to long-term is secured, given the stability that Newey’s involvement offers to bridge the gap between Cowell and a future appointment.

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