Adrian Newey ‘desperately’ needs one thing to stop Aston Martin becoming ‘even more chaotic’ in 2026

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Adrian Newey will step into uncharted territory in 2026 as he becomes the new team principal of Aston Martin, and issues are already bubbling at their base in Silverstone.

Aston Martin confirmed in November that Newey, who is the most successful car designer in F1 history, will replace Andy Cowell as their team principal from 2026. It will be the first time that the 66-year-old has held the position of team principal throughout his storied F1 career.

Newey will now only report into billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll, while Cowell will move to the role of chief strategy officer to work with Aston Martin’s engine and fuel partners. Aston Martin will be the only Honda-engined team in 2026 after agreeing a works power unit deal.

Stroll has bet heavily on the 2026 F1 regulations being Aston Martin’s path to the top, which included hiring Newey as their managing technical partner after he left Red Bull. Stroll made Newey a 5% shareholder in the Aston Martin F1 team to beat interest from most of the grid.

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Adrian Newey needs podiums in 2026 to prevent ‘even more’ chaos at Aston Martin

Newey has spent 2025 focusing extensively on designing Aston Martin’s car for the 2026 F1 regulations, which will introduce active aerodynamics for the first time to help combat any issues from the new engines with a 50/50 share between electrical and combustion power.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the 2026 F1 engine and aero regulations

Aston Martin have also hired 300 new employees to prepare for the 2026 F1 regulations era and the start of their time as Honda’s factory engine team. But Blick reports that Newey will ‘desperately’ need Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll to hand Aston Martin podiums in 2026.

If Aston Martin fail to reach any rostrums in 2026, then Newey risks things at their factory in Silverstone becoming ‘even more chaotic’. Aston Martin have taken just eight podiums since Stroll rebranded Racing Point in 2021, and Alonso took all eight of those in the 2023 season.

Fernando Alonso took Aston Martin’s last Grand Prix podium at the 2023 Sao Paulo GP

Alonso took advantage of Aston Martin starting the 2023 season with one of the fastest cars on the grid after joining from Alpine, as the Spaniard secured six podiums over the first eight rounds. But his best result in 2024 was P5 in Saudi Arabia, and also a P5 in 2025 in Hungary.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Aston Martin F1 team principal Adrian Newey

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Stroll has not taken a podium since he got P3 in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix for Racing Point, which Sergio Perez won before the team then rebranded as Aston Martin in 2021. The best that he has achieved since the Silverstone squad’s rebrand is P4 in the 2023 Australian GP.

Now, Newey needs Aston Martin’s car and Honda’s engine for the 2026 F1 regulations to put Alonso and/or Stroll on the rostrum regularly. But it is now said that Honda, Ferrari and Audi think Mercedes and possibly Red Bull have found a loophole in F1’s 2026 engine regulations.

There are concerns that Mercedes and Red Bull have potentially found a way to increase the rate of combustion during operation from the permitted 16:1 to 18:1, which could be worth as much as three-tenths of a second a lap. F1 has cut the rate from the 18:1 allowed in 2025.