Lawrence Stroll’s pursuit for onboarding Adrian Newey into the Aston Martin F1 project revolved around the team’s ambitions to crack the new 2026 regulations and hit the ground running in the latest era of the sport. However, Newey, who is considered one of the greatest designers of all time with 25 titles to his name, has admitted that he has very little knowledge about the new rules.
And he pins the blame on the extended ‘gardening leave’ he has had to go on after his exit from Red Bull last year. Speaking to AMuS’ Michael Schmidt, he explained, “Because I’ve been out of Formula 1 really since end of April, then, I have little knowledge, little detailed knowledge of the new regulations.”
| Adrian Newey will be free to join another team after he leaves Red Bull during the first quarter of 2025.
His gardening leave will start immediately as he will not be working with Red Bull Racing’s F1 division. Instead, he will be focusing on the RB17 Hypercar project.… pic.twitter.com/5TH6UomLC7
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) May 1, 2024
The concept of a gardening leave is quite commonplace in the F1 paddock. This prevents a team from losing any of their secrets to a rival as their former employee needs to spend a certain amount of time away from the sport before they can join another side. Generally, a gardening leave means that the person cannot join his new team for at least a year.
Similar restrictions were placed upon Newey when he decided to leave Red Bull for the Silverstone-based team. As he revealed, he was put on gardening leave from the end of April last year, and is expected to take the reins at Aston Martin on the 1st of March, 2025.
Despite time away, Newey is still Aston Martin’s best bet going into 2026
The new regulation set released by the FIA for 2026 focuses majorly on the power unit side of things. However, with the elimination of DRS (Drag Reduction System) and the addition of active-aero, there is still a lot to unpack on the chassis side of things — the area where Newey excels.
The 2026 cars will feature a shortened wheelbase and lighter weight limits. Dubbed the ‘nimble car’, there is a lot of scope for aerodynamicists such as Newey to work their magic and give their team that competitive edge.
Moreover, Aston Martin will also have their engines powered by Honda, who achieved plenty of success in their previous partnership with Red Bull. The two brands have signed an exclusive works Power Unit deal that comes into force from 2026 onwards.
Naturally, Newey has a very close association with Honda, having designed title-winning cars for Max Verstappen since 2021 with the Japanese automobile giants’ power units in the back. Now, this title-winning combination of Newey and Honda will look to power Aston Martin to glory.
