Aston Martin chief ‘not going to be around forever’ after Adrian Newey’s arrival

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Aston Martin have decided to completely shake up their technical hierarchy by making the biggest non-driver signing arguably in the history of Formula 1.

After helping Red Bull sustain two periods of dominance in F1 with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen the main beneficiaries, Adrian Newey is moving on to another project.

Every team on the grid have an interest in Newey, but in the end, he decided that Aston Martin was the best next step for him.

Aston Martin are the definition of a midtable Formula 1 team right now.

Fernando Alonso arrived at the team last year and managed to secure eight impressive podiums during his debut campaign. However, their form has tailed off over the past 12 months.

Alonso and Lance Stroll are almost exclusively fighting for the final couple of points at each Grand Prix weekend.

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

The Spaniard managed to finish 6^th in Baku but benefitted from Lewis Hamilton starting from the pit lane and Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz taking each other out on the penultimate lap.

Newey is going to lead one of the strongest technical teams in Formula 1, but journalist Joe Saward believes that one member of staff may not last long once he arrives.

The 2025 Aston Martin car is unlikely to be influenced by Newey, given he doesn’t start until March, but when the new regulations are implemented the following year, that’s where his influence will be seen.

That’s likely to mean that Dan Fallows will still play an important role over the next 12 months, but Saward is unsure that the pair will work together for long.

Dan Fallows ‘not going to be around forever’ once Adrian Newey arrives at Aston Martin

Talking about the technical structure at Aston Martin amid Newey’s arrival, Saward said: “The big news in the days before Baku was that Adrian Newey has finally decided to join Aston Martin, lured there by a pot of gold of epic proportions and two and a half per cent of the team’s shareholding. Good luck to him.

“It is not yet clear how Newey’s role of Managing Technical Partner will dovetail with all the other technical bigwigs that the team has been collecting in recent years.

“It is fairly clear that the current technical director Dan Fallows, who worked as an aerodynamicist under Newey at Red Bull for many years, is not going to be around forever.

“But there are also questions about what the recently-appointed chief technical officer Enrico Cardile will do when he joins the team from Ferrari in 2025.

“There is also former Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell, who is joining as group chief executive officer on October 1.

“Cowell is supposed to be reporting directly to Stroll, but the arrival of Newey may mean that he will be asked to report to Newey instead, given that a managing partner should have more clout than a mere CEO.

“And let us not forget Bob Bell, who enjoys the title Executive Director – Technical.”

Dan Fallows set to work with Adrian Newey again after Red Bull stint

Fallows is an aerodynamicist and, as technical director of Aston Martin, has been responsible for many of the updates added to Alonso and Stroll’s car over the past two years.

Unfortunately, that’s been one of the major downfalls of the team, who started 2023 so well but haven’t been able to develop their car at the same rate.

READ MORE: Pressure on Aston Martin director has now ‘skyrocketed’ after failed update packages

Fallows spent nearly 20 years with Red Bull – and their predecessors Jaguar – working alongside Newey. However, his move to Aston Martin was expected to give him some freedom from the 65-year-old’s influence.

The pair will now be reunited once again after 15 years at Red Bull and will know the ins and outs of how the other works very well.

Whether they can continue to collaborate is yet to be seen, but Fallows may wonder if he needs to find another new project to avoid his hard work being credited to Aston Martin’s most high-profile signing.