Adrian Newey made ‘obvious dig’ at McLaren during Aston Martin announcement

Follow us on Google Discover

Every word said by Adrian Newey, Lawrence Stroll, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll has been analysed after the 65-year-old’s move to Aston Martin was confirmed during a press conference on Tuesday.

Formula 1 media assembled at Aston Martin’s state-of-the-art facility in Silverstone as Lawrence Stroll’s vision for the team under Adrian Newey’s stewardship was outlined for 2025 and beyond.

Stroll left Fernando Alonso squirming in his seat with one comment he made about Newey but the Spaniard will be excited to see whether he can finally build a car that gives him the chance to return to winning ways in F1 more than a decade after his last victory.

Everything Newey says is extremely measured and deliberate and as journalist Edd Straw explained on The Race Podcast, said for a reason.

Aston Martin’s new wind tunnel isn’t ready yet but will be the final important piece in the puzzle for Newey and the grand team of staff Stroll has assembled to try and win a world championship.

It means when 2026 rolls around and a new ruleset is introduced to the sport, Aston Martin should be ready to compete with the top teams.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage

However, one thing Newey said about the suitability of the factory to designing the perfect F1 car appeared to take aim at McLaren.

McLaren’s Technology Centre in Woking looks spectacular from the outside, Newey described it in his book How to Build a Car as a ‘heavily oppressive grey building’.

Judging by his comments on Tuesday, he’s not got the same concerns about his new workplace.

Adrian Newey aims dig at McLaren Technology Centre during Aston Martin unveiling

Reflecting on Newey’s comments, Straw said: “I think he’ll be very, very motivated by this whole thing.

“But it’s going to be fantastic because also people say, oh, well, at Red Bull, it took Newey this long, but Newey’s joining the Aston Martin project much further down the line.

“They’ve got the factory. They’ve got the wind tunnel. They’ve got the new driver in-loop simulator. They’ve recruited loads of people.

“So Newey is coming in much further down the line in the process.

“He talked about the infrastructure he’s seen, etc. There’s stuff that he’ll be thinking this is brilliant, I really like the look of all this and coming from Red Bull, his standards are pretty high.

“One of the things actually he talked about was the factory and he said, I’ve seen some new buildings that haven’t quite fulfilled that in terms of what’s needed in Formula 1, which was an obvious dig at MTC.

“That’s McLaren, I thought. Newey’s very, very good at being critical of things without actually being critical of them. But you know what he thinks because he’s such a sharp character.”

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

On the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, journalist Ted Kravitz echoed Straw’s thoughts and said: “He made a very interesting comment about factories in the beginning of the press conference today, Adrian Newey, which I took to be McLaren.

“He said, factories are really important, it’s nice to come and have somewhere that feels good and that can make people communicate to each other and has nice wood, sorry, he didn’t mention the wood, but this is what I took from it, that has a nice feeling to the factory that allows creativity to flow because we are in a creative business.

“And some factories I’ve worked in don’t have that. Martin Whitmarsh was there and he can only mean the McLaren Technology Centre.”

Aston Martin aiming for immediate success with Adrian Newey

The timing of Newey’s arrival is fascinating as Aston Martin will be able to start working on their 2026 car several months before he can step foot in the factory.

Alonso and Stroll won’t be expecting to take big steps forward next season with the regulations unlikely to change and a significant gap to the top four teams left to try and make up.

However, team principal Mike Krack believes it’s realistic to expect Aston Martin to challenge for the championship in 2026 which will be music to Alonso’s ears.

The 43-year-old’s contract runs out at the conclusion of that season and while he could sign an extension, Alonso will have to start considering his next steps at that point in his career.