As the calendar turned to March 3, the start of the 2025 Formula 1 season inched one day closer.
For one team, however, Monday brought a new arrival to the factory.
Adrian Newey’s tenure at Aston Martin officially began on Saturday, March 1 with the legendary designer entering his new role as the team’s Managing Technical Partner after an extended run at Red Bull. Ahead of his first day at the factory, Aston Martin shared an image of Newey’s office, complete with his iconic drawing board:
In this era of technological advancements and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), Newey’s drawing board remains part of his process. “I guess it means I am the last dinosaur in the industry probably,” Newey explained during his time at Red Bull. “It’s what I grew up on. I like the ability to sketch at a decent scale. What I like about a drawing board is that I can lay things out.”
When word broke ahead of last season’s Miami Grand Prix that Newey would be leaving Red Bull several of the team’s former drivers shared their thoughts on the legendary engineer, with his famous drawing board top of mind.
“I’ll say it. Extremely talented, most successful engineer in the history of our sport, very, you know, particular approach,” said Pierre Gasly to the media, including SB Nation. “I still remember going to Milton Keynes and like drawing all sorts of stuff on this board. And I thought ‘[i]s that how we draw an F1 car these days?’
“And it’s just very impressive and actually probably my best memory from [then], like working with such a special individual and learning from him.
“I had a very good relationship with [him], a very humble guy and down to earth and straight to performance. And obviously his knowledge and his way of approaching F1 is very efficient, but it was a lot of good memories,” continued Gasly. “I always found it very amazing to just walk in his office and just see like the type of things you’ll see on his desk and on his board, it was very unique.”
Newey faces a unique challenge at Aston Martin. His arrival comes following pre-season testing, meaning he is too late to influence the design of the AMR 25, the team’s challenger for the 2025 season. However, he can certainly aid with upgrades to the car for this year, while getting started on next year’s challenger.
When a sweeping new set of technical regulations arrives.
Those new regulations give Newey a chance to stand in front of that drawing board and perhaps do what he does best: Solve a new riddle.
“I do enjoy regulation changes,” Newey is quoted as saying in The Formula. “Perhaps the part of my job I enjoy the most is figuring out what those regulations mean, what is their intention, and if a subtle difference allows [us to explore] new horizons.”
That process begins today for Newey, and Aston Martin.
