‘Unique’ Adrian Newey impact as triple Aston Martin role uncovered

Aston Martin chief technology officer Enrico Cardile says working with  Adrian Newey is like talking to a chief designer, vehicle dynamics expert and aerodynamic head rolled into one.

Cardile made the move over from Ferrari to take a senior role in Aston Martin’s technical structure, working with Newey on the team’s 2026 car.

Enrirco Cardile: Adrian Newey has ‘push to perfection’ design approach

Much has been said about Newey’s high-profile move to Aston Martin from Red Bull, taking on the role of managing technical partner, which also offered him a stakeholder position in the team.

With Cardile having worked his way up through the Ferrari ranks before taking on a senior position with Aston Martin, he confirmed that Newey is “definitely the engine moving the development of the car” in 2026, with every team preparing for Formula 1’s sweeping regulation changes next season.

Working in an office next door to the feted ‘design guru’ of Formula 1, Ferrari’s former chassis technical director revealed what he has learned from working alongside Newey so far.

“If I have to mention one, it’s how uncompromised he is, how driven he is for achieving his goal without doing any compromise anywhere, pushing all the stuff, regardless of the money, to perfection,” Cardile told the Beyond the Grid podcast.

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“But it’s more than this, because when he realises something, he has already in mind how to achieve it.

“So if someone in the organisation should struggle for achieving it, he is supportive on providing all the details needed for what he has in mind to make it doable.

“He’s able to work at a very high level, but then when needed, he can dive deep down on the details for the feasibility.

With Newey’s success statistically out-ranking anyone else in the history of the sport from a design perspective, Cardile referenced the Briton’s longevity in the sport as one of the reasons behind his capabilities.

With Formula 1 teams being split into many different departments, Cardile believes that Newey’s arrival in the sport when more multi-skilled roles were a requirement has stood him in good stead.

“Adrian is a mix of two things that are making him unique, because on one hand, there is a very, very bright, outstanding engineer and a very bright mind. On the other hand, there is a long experience,” he said.

“Experience done when F1 teams were made by just few people, and the technology to support the development was not as much as we have now.

“So, he developed his career with the technology available for developing the car, being all the time on top of this technology.

“Talking with him is like talking with a modern F1 team at the same time – the chief designer, the vehicle dynamics expert, the chief aero.

“All this in just one person, you find so many different skills. Which is unique.”

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