How much Adrian Newey could earn in bonuses every year once he joins Aston Martin

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Putting a price on Adrian Newey’s skillset is easier said than done but Aston Martin have negotiated with his manager Eddie Jordan to come to an agreement.

Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll suggested during Adrian Newey’s unveiling that the 65-year-old was a ‘bargain’.

Formula 1 teams are allowed to have three members of staff outside of the budget cap and Newey is expected to be outside of that remit.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast about the finances of the deal, Craig Slater shared what he had heard about how much Newey can earn above his base wage.

Newey held long discussions with Ferrari before committing to Aston Martin as Frederic Vasseur considered adding the legendary designer to his backroom staff.

Ferrari weren’t willing to match Newey’s wage demands with Vasseur keen to build his own backroom structure without hiring some of the additional staff Newey would have wanted.

Unsurprisingly, Newey’s base wage is already very impressive and as a shareholder at Aston Martin, he has an added incentive to make sure his latest project is a success.

However, Slater has explained that Newey has the chance to earn much more than that should he and the team reach certain performance quotas.

How much Adrian Newey can earn from Aston Martin bonuses

Asked about the finances of the deal, Slater explained: “The figure I’m most confident about, and I think there’s a lot of figures in the public domain or figures people are putting out there, the figure I’m most confident about is a basic salary of 25 million US dollars per year.

“So, in today’s exchanges under £20m. The bonuses could lift that by another half.

“So, you’re looking at £30m. The agreement is for five years, but of course, there’s an open-ended aspect because he’s also a shareholder as well now, so it could be for the foreseeable.

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

“But those are the terms which are more competitive terms than anyone else was offering, still probably cheap at the price.

“In the original bidding, I think Eddie Jordan was an aggressive representative for Adrian Newey.

“I think the bidding here started to run about 50 million US dollars [£38.3m] a year. So, [Stroll] was able to knock that down by 50%. That’s what I’ve been told.”

Craig Slater names F1 team who didn’t show Newey enough ‘respect’ during negotiations

Jordan admitted that every team in F1 was interested in Newey but it’s hard to know exactly how far some of those negotiations progressed.

Slater has suggested that Mercedes didn’t show Newey enough respect when they held talks and that’s why he didn’t choose to move to Brackley.

Aston Martin are in a team in transition and their position in the 2024 Constructors’ Championship is almost guaranteed now.

The five teams below them show no signs of catching them and the gap to Mercedes ahead of them is already more than 200 points.

Newey has always enjoyed taking on projects at teams who aren’t already at the front of the grid.

All of the facilities and staff that Newey needs to succeed at Aston Martin will be in place when he arrives in March next year.

How he and the team around him approach the new set of regulations will determine whether Aston Martin could be championship contenders in 2026.