Damon Hill Understands the Appeal Behind Adrian Newey’s Reported $100 Million Move to Aston Martin

Over the past few days, several reports have claimed that Adrian Newey has agreed to join Aston Martin on a $100 million deal. 1996 F1 champion, Damon Hill believes that this deal makes sense for Newey as the British aerodynamicist can use his expertise to help a team with “unfilled potential” achieve its goals.

While speaking on a recent episode of the F1 Nation podcast, Hill said, “Aston have got headroom. They have got the resources, and they have also got unfulfilled potential, which Adrian could be really useful for”.

Aston Martin indeed seem to be a team that has a lot of potential because of the sheer investment Lawrence Stroll has made in the team. The Canadian billionaire has invested a whopping $200 million in their new wind tunnel and a state-of-the-art factory on their Silverstone campus.

However, Aston Martin’s technical director, Dan Fallows said earlier this year that they will take time to launch their own wind tunnel. If the Silverstone-based outfit can launch their wind tunnel by 2025 and also sign Newey, then they have an outstanding chance to turn their fortunes around for the new regulations in 2026.

Moreover, if Aston Martin are able to sign Newey, it would also be a huge blow to Ferrari. Before the recent reports that Aston Martin had reached an agreement with Newey, many experts deemed it was a given that the Red Bull CTO will join Ferrari.

David Coulthard convinced Newey will not join Ferrari

Soon after Red Bull confirmed that Newey will leave the team after the first quarter of 2025, several reports emerged that the 65-year-old’s next move would be to join Ferrari. That would have fulfilled two of the three regrets Newey had in his life. His first regret is that he has never worked with Ferrari.

And his second regret is that he has never worked with Lewis Hamilton, who will join the Prancing Horse next year. However, following the latest reports of Newey’s Aston Martin joining, Coulthard also confirmed the same on the Formula for Success podcast.

The former Red Bull driver said, “Well, he [Adrian Newey] is not going to Ferrari”. When his co-host, Eddie Jordan asked Coulthard how he was so sure, the British former driver replied,

“Because a very senior source has said no. He’s not going to McLaren [either] unless it’s linked to road cars”.

Now, since Ferrari no longer seems the favorite in signing Newey, the team has also denied ever approaching the British aerodynamicist. As things stand, Aston Martin are the only team to have reportedly persisted in trying to secure the 65-year-old’s services.