What Lawrence Stroll told Aston Martin staff about Christian Horner when he announced Adrian Newey news

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Adrian Newey is back on the Aston Martin pit wall at the Qatar Grand Prix after the team announced that he would become their new boss in 2026.

Legendary designer Newey is taking on the team principal position for the first time in his F1 career. The incumbent, Andy Cowell, will instead take on the role of chief strategy officer.

When it emerged last week that Cowell’s position was under threat, Christian Horner was thought to be one of the candidates to replace him. On the face of it, Newey’s subsequent appointment rules out his arrival.

However, Horner could still join Aston Martin in a different capacity. Newey has already hired Paul Field, the former Red Bull logistics boss, as his COO and may want to get the band ‘back together’ at Silverstone.

Lawrence Stroll told Aston Martin that Christian Horner wasn’t joining – for now

There were reports this week that Newey had given Horner a tour of the Aston Martin factory. That suggested that any friction from their final months at Red Bull had dissipated, and that a renewed collaboration was possible.

But ‘several sources’ close to the team have told Planet F1 that the tour did not take place.

When Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll addressed the factory on Wednesday to confirm the restructure, he reportedly said that ‘Horner isn’t joining the team’.

However, it’s believed that Stroll was only talking about the ‘here and now’ and the position of team principal. That means he could still arrive further down the line in an alternative role.

There’s a theory that Newey will only be Aston Martin team principal for a year or so while Stroll finds another managerial figure who can permanently absorb some of his responsibilities.

Adrian Newey stepped in when another team principal candidate was in line for the job

Another name in contention was Andreas Seidl, who was previously the team principal at McLaren and also had a short-lived stint in the Audi F1 project.

As of last Sunday, Seidl was the ‘favoured option’. But Planet F1 say that Newey ‘intervened’ to tell Stroll that he was a better option.

One Aston Martin employee says the team are ‘out of control’ after Stroll recruited several senior engineers, creating an unclear organisational structure. Newey is their fourth team principal since the 2021 rebrand.