Adrian Newey’s move to the Aston Martin Formula 1 team looks set to be announced in the build-up to next week’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Following months of speculation about the future of the legendary F1 designer, who announced earlier this year that he would be leaving Red Bull, final confirmation of his plans is likely to come before the next race.
While Newey was initially linked most strongly with the Ferrari team in the wake of his Red Bull exit, it quickly became clear that Aston Martin had overtaken it as a leading bidder to secure his services.
As well as team owner Lawrence Stroll doing some personal bidding to convince Newey to come onboard, a secret visit to Aston Martin’s Silverstone factory in June is understood to have played a major part in his decision to believe that the squad can give him what he needs.
Stroll has invested hugely in creating a state-of-the-art facility for the squad, and critically a new wind tunnel is due to be up and running soon, which will help in the team's long-term ambitions.
While Aston Martin has not commented on the situation, an announcement about Newey’s future had long been anticipated for this month – because of a clause in his Red Bull exit terms regarding when his future could be revealed.
As reported by Motorsport.com, sources indicated that a September date had been agreed for when he would be allowed to go public with what he was doing – which then would leave a six-month window before he could officially start work.
The likely imminent confirmation of Newey’s arrival comes amid a major recruitment drive by Aston Martin to secure the top engineering talent the squad thinks is needed to take on the best in F1.
Before the summer break, the outfit announced that former Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell would be joining it as Group CEO in October, replacing Martin Whitmarsh.
Furthermore, Aston has signed former Ferrari chassis technical director Enrico Cardile to help boost its design strengths.
With the team already having a technical director in place in Dan Fallows, who used to work with Newey at Red Bull, there have been questions asked about how easy it would be to create a coherent structure that involved all its star talent.
But speaking at the recent Dutch Grand Prix, Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack said it would not be a big issue to resolve.
“I think Formula 1 these days is so broad,” he said. “It is not like you have to make huge changes.
“I think there was a time where there was a team that had seven technical directors in the past, so I think we are very far from that. I think someone like that, you have to make any kind of effort to integrate and adjust your structure to get the best out of it.”
While Newey’s likely arrival at Aston Martin will be a huge boost to the team's long-term ambitions, with the Briton having won titles at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, current driver Fernando Alonso thinks it will take time for his impact to be felt.
Asked at the Italian Grand Prix about the looming confirmation, Alonso said: “Well, still only rumours. And I think it's not only [a] one-man job to fix the things.
“So it's more what we have now and what we are producing; understand what is going in the right direction, what is going on the wrong direction and try to prepare 2025 in a better way.”
