Aston Martin won’t like what Adrian Newey said about the first Red Bull F1 car he designed ahead of 2026’s rule changes

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The 2025 Formula 1 season hasn’t started in the manner that Aston Martin would have liked after a disappointing end to the previous campaign.

By the time the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix rolled around at the end of last year, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were fighting a losing battle in F1’s midfield, and the team were lucky to finish fifth in the constructors’ championship.

Changes were made at Aston Martin, with chairman Lawrence Stroll replacing Mike Krack as team principal with Andy Cowell, who combines the role with his job as CEO.

The 2026 regulation changes will reset the pecking order in the paddock, and that’s what Aston Martin are relying on after making some very high-profile signings.

Enrico Cardile arrives from Ferrari in the summer, while Adrian Newey has started putting pen to paper on his latest designs after spending nearly two decades with Red Bull.

He helped the Anglo-Austrian team win plenty of championships, thanks to the dominance of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

However, Aston Martin might be expecting too much of Newey if they think they’ll suddenly be at the front of the pack in 2026 with the first car he designs.

READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Adrian Newey sent Red Bull warning in 2007 that Aston Martin must listen to ahead of F1’s rule changes

Newey arrived at Red Bull in 2006, meaning the first car he was responsible for was the RB3.

Renault had joined Red Bull that year, and in an interview with Autosport, it was put to Newey that expectations were very high, to which he replied: “Yes, unfortunately, I think expectations do seem to be quite high, which is a shame.

“I would much rather sort of go in, in a fairly low-key way, and if we do better than expected, then that’s great.

“We are still a young team and that means that some of our infrastructure and resources aren’t yet as good as some of the more established teams.

“How much that will hold us back? That sounds like an excuse, it’s not meant to be, it’s a fact.

“I think we have the basic structure and the basic facilities to do a decent job this year, and then try to build year on year from there.”

Red Bull finished fifth in the championship that year, with their best performance coming at the European Grand Prix when Mark Webber finished on podium, and David Coulthard coming home in P5.

Lawrence Stroll won’t be satisfied with another fifth-place finish in the standings in 2026.

However, Aston Martin’s facilities are much better than Red Bull’s were 20 years ago, which might give the team an advantage.

READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin managing technical partner Adrian Newey

What Adrian Newey did in his first year at Red Bull among Aston Martin’s 2025 struggles

Aston Martin have scored 10 points in 2025, all courtesy of Stroll after a difficult start to the year for Alonso.

Newey isn’t expected to work on Aston Martin’s 2025 car, which is in line with what he did when he first arrived at Red Bull.

He was asked about his influence on their 2006 car and explained: “We are doing a lot of catch-up, certainly 2006 for Red Bull was quite a weak year.

“And that, in my experience, is almost an established thing that the team quite often comes in in its first year – 2005 in Red Bull’s case – they do better than expected, and then they seem to flounder around a little in the second year.

“The car had various problems, and then really from about mid-season we decided that since we were clearly not going to be properly competitive in 2006, we would concentrate our efforts on the 2007 car.

“So that also meant a slight further tail-off towards the end of the year. But we are keen to turn this around for this year.”

It’s interesting that Newey led Red Bull to abandon their 2006 car early to concentrate on 2007, something Aston Martin are likely to be considering very shortly.

Newey has at least been impressed with Stroll and has always spoken about his desire to work with Alonso, which will give him some hope for next season, even if he might be warning against immediately building a championship-winning car.