Aston Martin insider says the team are ‘completely out of control’ as Adrian Newey takes over

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Adrian Newey will oversee his first weekend as an F1 team principal at the Qatar Grand Prix. Aston Martin announced this week that the legendary designer had taken over from Andy Cowell.

Cowell has been reassigned as the team’s chief strategy officer, a role with a narrower focus. He will be able to work even more closely with Honda, the team’s new engine suppliers for 2026.

Toto Wolff raved about Cowell after he led Mercedes’ all-conquering engine division, so the restructure may benefit Aston Martin. But it reportedly came about after internal conflict.

It’s said that Newey viewed himself as the ultimate authority figure, while Cowell saw things differently. Lawrence Stroll backed the former Red Bull engineer, putting him in a position he’s never experienced.

Aston Martin employee admits the team are in a state of chaos

While Newey is regarded as one of the greatest minds in F1 history, the disruption at Aston Martin is a concern heading into 2026, a year they have long earmarked as their opportunity to join the leading pack.

Otmar Szafnauer led the team following their 2021 rebrand but was replaced by Mike Krack after moving to Alpine. Krack, now the chief trackside officer, was in charge for three years before being supplanted by Cowell.

Aston have therefore had four bosses in four years and have lacked a settled structure. Stroll has launched a star-studded recruitment drive, but according to one team employee, it has left the team with ‘too many’ authority figures.

“Things are completely out of control here,” the insider told Blick. “We simply have too many chiefs on board.”

In addition to Newey and Cowell, Stroll has also brought in former Ferrari technical director Enrico Cardile and senior Mercedes aerodynamicist Eric Blandin. Dan Fallows joined from Red Bull in 2022 but was removed from his role a year ago.

Zak Brown tells Aston Martin that Adrian Newey ‘can’t do it all’

The Race recently reported that seven staff members were leaving Aston Martin in an ‘overhaul’ led by Newey. It may take time for the 66-year-old’s changes to pay off on track.

One theory is that Newey may only be team principal for a year or two, until Stroll finds a CEO figure in the same mould as McLaren’s Zak Brown.

Speaking on The Sports Agents podcast, Brown warned Aston Martin that Newey ‘can’t do it all’. If he were the boss at Silverstone, he would want the Englishman ‘100%’ focused on car design.

“You need to have a certain skillset from a managerial point of view,” he said. “I know Adrian very well. The guy’s an absolute legend.

“I don’t know their structure. This is just me looking from the outside in. The model that we have at McLaren is that Andrea takes the performance of the racing team, and I take the performance of the business.

“Andrea couldn’t give 100% to what he’s doing if he also had to do what I’m doing. [Newey] can’t do it all. He can’t design a race car and be a team principal, and a CEO. What I don’t know is what parts of the job he’s doing.

“I would want to make sure Adrian is spending 100% of his time on his race car, because that’s his genius. For every meeting he’s in that’s not about designing the race car, where is his skill best?

“When you’ve got the best race car designer ever, I’d want him 100% on designing the car.”