Key Adrian Newey advantage spotted after double McLaren inspection complete
Adrian Newey: Aston Martin's ticket to the top?
Adrian Newey’s habit of inspecting rival cars on the grid stems from his belief that he can “learn” from his competitors, a former Mercedes mechanic and pit crew member has claimed.
It comes after the Aston Martin man was spotted by PlanetF1.com studying the dominant McLaren MCL39 in Monaco and Britain earlier this season.
Why Adrian Newey has eyed the McLaren MCL39 during the F1 2025 season
Newey stands as the most decorated individual in F1 history with involvement in more than 200 races wins and a combined 26 Drivers’ and Constructors’ title triumphs for the likes of Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.
The 66-year-old joined Aston Martin in the newly created role of managing technical partner in March, as well as becoming a shareholder in the F1 team.
Newey is currently leading the development of Aston Martin’s first car – expected to be named the AMR26 – for the new F1 2026 rules, which will see the sport embrace 50 per cent electrification, fully sustainable fuels and active aerodynamics.
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Although Newey’s primary focus is on the 2026 car, the legendary designer has joined his new team trackside at various races during the F1 2025 season, appearing with Aston Martin at the Monaco and British grands prix.
On both occasions, PlanetF1.com reporter Thomas Maher spotted Newey taking a close look at the championship-leading McLaren MCL39 driven by Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris (below).
McLaren has tasted victory at 12 of the 16 races held so far in F1 2025, establishing a 337-point advantage in the Constructors’ standings with eight rounds remaining.
The Woking-based team can clinch a second successive teams’ title at next weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.
Ryan McGarva, a former Mercedes mechanic, reckons that Newey’s willingness to analyse what his competitors are doing is a key element behind his success.
He told Champions Speakers in association with PlanetF1.com: “Data is analysed in every area of F1, whether it’s in the pit stops, whether it’s the performance of the car, the reliability of the car.
“I think the first thing that they would do is we analyse ourselves and the things that the team can control.
“They also analyse the competition, so it’s very important to look at the other nine teams on the grid and what they’re doing, and any lessons that can be learned from what your competition are doing.
“Adrian Newey is one of the best F1 designers that there’s ever been, but at the start of the race you regularly see him on the grid looking at what all the other teams are doing.
“He’s just taking in and realises he can learn from the other nine teams on the grid, so it’s very important to analyse your competitors.
“In the olden days the data was the advantage, so the more data you had the more of an advantage you had.
“But actually now the teams all have a very similar amount of data and they all have the same information available to them.
“So actually the strengths come from your team and how they analyse that data, how they prioritise what they look at, and realising when there’s bad data as well and not reacting to that.
“So I think it’s actually the people as much as the data.”
More on Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin from PlanetF1.com
Speaking at last month’s Dutch Grand Prix, Aston Martin driver and two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso outlined his excitement over working with Newey ahead of the F1 2026 rules reset.
Asked if he is starting to understand how Newey ticks, Alonso told PlanetF1.com and other publications at Zandvoort: “Yes, definitely.
“You spend more time with him and you keep learning things and how he works and how he approach things, challenges, all these normal day-by-day, things in Formula 1.
“But I think he’s still a person that is very special and I think only few people will understand him fully and will be able to know exactly what he’s thinking and what he’s doing.
“So we will need more time. At the moment, we are in a phase of learning from him.
“Every conversation, every idea, everything that he says, we take it very carefully.
“We listen and we try to understand the approach that he’s taking into that comment.
“And thanks to that, I think we are growing as a team, so it has been very special for sure.”
Asked if he gets the impression that Newey understands him too, Alonso replied: “I think so!
“I think all the questions and all the ideas that he raises, he explains why he thinks that it’s going to be a good solution for the team, for the car and for the drivers as well.
“In terms of how to approach the corner entry, maybe next year is very different than this year’s cars.
“Top speed is going to be different next year. Tyres are going to be different next year.
“So he tries to anticipate what the drivers will face in certain moments on the lap, in quali, versus the race and all this kind of thing.
“So he’s very educative.”
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