Key Aston Martin figure will be under ‘a lot of pressure’ alongside Adrian Newey heading into 2026

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Adrian Newey’s move to Aston Martin for 2025 has created a significant amount of excitement for what the Silverstone-based squad can achieve in the future.

The 65-year-old will join Aston Martin following the first quarter of 2025 when he will depart Red Bull after almost two decades, Newey designed the cars for the Milton Keynes outfit that took them from the middle of the pack to six-time constructors’ champions as of the end of the 2023 season.

After Newey announced he would be leaving Red Bull, there was endless amounts of speculation as to where he next destination would be. He came close to joining Ferrari along with Lewis Hamilton, while there was also the rumour that the legendary engineer would call it quits in Formula 1 and retire.

But sure enough, the 65-year-old will keep his illustrious career going as he embarks on a new challenge with Aston Martin. The Silverstone team had been heavily linked with Newey, with Jaime Alguersuari pointing to Fernando Alonso as a key reason for Newey’s signing.

While Newey may have little effect on Aston Martin’s 2025 machine at the start of the year due to his gardening leave with Red Bull, many are excited to see how the team fair when he eventually does switch blue for green.

Enrico Cardile will be under pressure as well as Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Speaking on The Race F1 Podcast, Ben Anderson highlighted another key figure at Aston Martin that will be under pressure to deliver results in the future.

The 2026 regulations bring a complete new era to F1, with revolutionary new cars, an emphasis on sustainability and new teams and power units joining the grid.

For Aston Martin, they will be running a Honda power units come 2026, who Newey has worked with at Red Bull. Along with the 65-year-old’s signing, the team have also recruited Enrico Cardile from Ferrari, who will join as their Chief Technical Officer in 2025.

With Cardile boasting huge experience in the sport, Anderson believes the Italian will be under pressure as well as Newey to turn the team’s fortunes around as they struggle to compete with the top four in 2024.

“He [Newey] mentions his three ways of working, two of those were related to working with other people and I’ve covered that,” he said.

“But the other way of working for Newey is shutting himself off in a room, solitary as he put it, with his drawing board and coming up with ideas.

“And there’s going to be a lot, a lot of pressure on him, and probably Enrico Cardile when he joins next year, on 2026 and coming up with those kind of future-looking conceptual ideas that are going to give Aston Martin and Honda a head start when the rules reset and Formula 1, in theory, resets in about, what, 18 months time.”

Expectations are already high for Aston Martin after Adrian Newey’s signing

With Newey’s track record of taking teams from the midfield and making them champions – as seen with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull – it is no surprise that many are anticipating Aston Martin to be the next team to see success.

The team enjoyed their best season under the Aston Martin name in 2023, with Fernando Alonso scoring eight podiums and finishing fourth in the drivers’ standings.

However, they have not been to replicate that success in 2024 as Aston Martin have fallen back into the midfield. Alonso has finished in the top five only once all year while Lance Stroll as less than half of the Spaniard’s points.

Expectations are already incredibly high, with David Coulthard even labelling Alonso as the 2025 champion upon Newey’s signing. The only question now is whether the 65-year-old’s magic notebook can strike again at Aston Martin.