Adrian Newey breaks silence in first interview since Aston Martin TP announcement

Appointed Aston Martin’s team principal from the start of the F1 2026 season, Adrian Newey says it made sense for him to take over the role from Andy Cowell as he was “going to be doing all the early races anyway”.

Aston Martin announced this week a change of leadership for next year, with Cowell moving into the new role of chief strategic officer and Newey taking over the team principal job.

Adrian Newey: “Since I’m going to be doing all the early races anyway…”

The Silverstone team said in its announcement that Newey and Cowell had “agreed to divide their responsibilities in order to focus on their individual strengths and expertise, ensuring organisational efficiency”.

Taking on the team boss role means Newey is doing two of the biggest jobs within Aston Martin, team principal and managing technical partner. The latter is the role he’s had since joining the team in March after his gardening leave following his Red Bull exit.

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But a month before Newey even sits in the TP seat, questions are being asked about whether he’s in it for the long run, or if he’s a stop-gap for his former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

The design legend, who has 26 championship titles to his name in Formula 1, may have given the biggest hint yet when he spoke with Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz.

Asked why the change in leadership, Newey said it was not only because Cowell’s “skillset” best suited managing the new relationship between Aston Martin and Honda, but he would be at the grands prix anyway.

The “early races” that is.

“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.”

The 66-year-old went on to make it clear that designing the new generation Aston Martin car was his main focus even in light of his new role.

“That’s really what I want to and need to do,” he said. “That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning, so I’m determined not to dilute that.”

Although Newey saying he would be at the “early races anyway” given he is the managing technical partner at Aston Martin could be just a simple statement, it could yet hint that there may be a change at Aston Martin mid-season.

A change that could see the design guru reunite with his former team principal at Red Bull, Horner.

As part of his Red Bull exit, it is understood Horner negotiated an early release in exchange for a payout of around $100 million that would allow him to return to the paddock after the first half of F1 2026.

Read next: Is Christian Horner the final piece in Adrian Newey’s Aston Martin masterplan?