After months of being linked with a move to Ferrari, it seems as though Adrian Newey has penned a deal with Aston Martin. Speaking of this latest development, F1 journalist Peter Windsor failed to understand the 65-year-old’s motivations for joining the Silverstone-based team when an option in the form of McLaren was seemingly available.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Windsor said that he was not sure why Newey would want to work for the Strolls when he could have easily found a better match with McLaren and Zak Brown. In addition to their common love for classic cars and the team being his old stomping grounds, Windsor also highlighted Newey’s son Harrison’s emerging GT racing career.
“From Adrian’s point of view – why he wouldn’t prefer to go to McLaren than go and work for the Strolls? That’s another odd one. He’d be at home with McLaren – cool team, great love for historic cars between Zak [Brown] and Adrian, and then lots of GT racing stuff [that] Harry Newey can get involved with,” Windsor explained.
BBC: Adrian Newey most likely going to Aston Martin to work alongside Fernando Alonso, something that is on his wish list.
Ferrari no longer seems to be an option for Newey. According to Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna, they are afraid that Newey would have too much power and… pic.twitter.com/ZqMpvRxbdM
— Marc | Formula 1 (@433_marc) July 16, 2024
Harrison Newey is a pretty handy race car driver as well. The last time he competed was in a one-off showing at the 2020 European Le Mans Series in the LM GTE category – scoring a podium for the AF Corse team at Spa-Francorchamps.
He has won the Asian Le Mans Series in 2018 in the LMP2 category as well as the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 championship in 2017. That being said, Windsor did concede that right now McLaren really did not need Newey.
McLaren might not need but want Newey
Windsor feels that whilst the Woking-based team are on the right trajectory with their car, it would be a novelty to have the 65-year-old in their ranks anyway. “They’re [McLaren] doing such a good job anyway. But it’s better to have Adrian than not have him. And if you’ve got Adrian, he’s not going anywhere else either,” he concluded.
Happy 56th birthday to Adrian Newey, whose superb cars won 3 late-’90s #F1 championships for McLaren & Mika Hakkinen. pic.twitter.com/5uwW9laNyd
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) December 26, 2014
Newey has served as McLaren’s technical director in the past from 1997 to 2005. During this time, the British design genius led Mika Hakkinen to two drivers’ world titles in 1998 and 1999 as well as securing McLaren the 1998 constructors’ title with the MP4/13.
