Newey going back to the drawing board at Aston Martin

LONDON – Adrian Newey was literally going back to the drawing board when Formula One’s foremost designer started work at Aston Martin on March 3.

The 66-year-old Briton, whose departure from Red Bull was announced in May 2024, famously likes to work with pencil and paper in a sport awash with supercomputers and data-crunching on a mind-blowing scale.

“His office is ready, the drawing board’s there,” team principal Andy Cowell told reporters during testing in Bahrain last week.

Newey had an office, complete with drawing board, next to team boss Christian Horner at Red Bull and his new one will be in the midst of an army of designers on a floor of Aston Martin’s Silverstone headquarters.

“I guess it means I am the last dinosaur in the industry, probably,” he once told Reuters, when asked about the drawing board early in 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.”

Cars designed by Newey have won 12 constructors’ championships and 14 drivers’ titles for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.

His 2023 Red Bull was the most dominant in the sport’s history, with 21 wins from 22 races.

Aston Martin, with 43-year-old Spanish double world champion Fernando Alonso and team owner’s son Lance Stroll, have yet to win anything in Formula One and finished fifth last season.

Canadian Lawrence Stroll, the big boss, described Newey as a bargain after announcing his signing in September 2024.

Cowell, a former Mercedes engine head who joined Aston Martin in 2024 as chief executive officer and was appointed team boss in January, has said he expects Newey to have an immediate impact.

“Everybody’s super excited to work with