Lawrence Stroll has now copied Christian Horner’s approach to managing Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

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Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll is pinning his hopes of running a world championship-winning Formula 1 team on Adrian Newey.

Adrian Newey officially joined Aston Martin last year after a gardening period following his Red Bull exit.

Newey initially joined Aston Martin as managing technical partner and has an ownership stake in the team as a result.

Fill in the blank: Aston Martin will finish P_ in the 2026 F1 standings

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Eddie Jordan helped Newey negotiate with Aston Martin, and towards the end of 2025, the shock news arrived that Lawrence Stroll had named him as team principal alongside his other responsibilities.

Newey is incredibly demanding and has enjoyed success with the likes of Williams and McLaren, but his relationship with the teams is never straightforward.

Christian Horner got the best out of Newey for the longest period of time before he also moved on from the Red Bull project.

Journalist Mark Hughes has now shared how Stroll is following in Horner’s footsteps when it comes to getting the best out of the design genius.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Aston Martin F1 team principal Adrian Newey

Lawrence Stroll has given Adrian Newey more control like Christian Horner at Red Bull

Speaking on the Motor Sport Magazine about Newey joining Aston Martin, Hughes explained: “So it’s a slightly different role now, but that team principal role does seem to be populated more and more by engineers, and Adrian Newey is the uber boss of everything at Aston Martin in terms of engineering.

“He has long raged against any control over him, and it happened at Williams. It was part of his dissatisfaction there, and it happened at McLaren with Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh.

“He felt they had to control his excesses, and he felt they didn’t understand the big picture, and they were limiting what he was able to do.

“And one of the reasons why Christian Horner harnessed him so successfully is that he just said so what do you want? What do you need?

“Well, you can do it like that. You want to come in here? You want to live there? That’s fine.

“So he held on to him for much longer. Lawrence Stroll just seems to have given him the keys to the factory.

“So, we’ll see how that goes. But, I think it’s going to be very, very exciting.”

READ MORE: Who is Christian Horner? All you need to know from Red Bull to net worth

Aston Martin have to rely on Fernando Alonso to prepare best for the 2026 F1 season

Newey’s work is by no means done just because the car made its on-track debut on day four of the Barcelona shakedown.

He’s notorious for pushing deadlines, and it would be a surprise if the car looks the same in Australia as it will do at the start of the test in Bahrain.

Damon Hill thinks Fernando Alonso could be crucial to Aston Martin’s testing efforts, and his instincts could be key to helping get the most out of the AMR26.

Newey has reportedly been positively surprised by Lance Stroll, too, and so the very experienced pair could be exceptionally useful during a new regulation set.

The design genius has more control over Aston Martin being a success than any other person, but he’s still reliant on plenty of factors outside of his remit.

That includes Honda and Aramco, who might already be having issues, which could deny him a championship with a fourth different team.