Fernando Alonso awaits Adrian Newey
Fernando Alonso is counting the days until Adrian Newey arrives at Aston Martin. At that point, the two-time world champion will finally fulfill his dream of working closely with the most successful designer in Formula 1 history, as well as one of his greatest rivals. Meanwhile, British newspapers are reporting rumors of Aston Martin going to great lengths to secure the services of four-time champion Max Verstappen. However, Alonso remains cautious, lowering expectations—both for the 2025 season, where Newey’s impact will inevitably be minimal, and for 2026, when Fernando will likely drive the first car designed by the British engineer.
Aston Martin 2025: 95% new
“We’ll see what happens,” Fernando Alonso told the Spanish newspaper AS. “But we have to be cautious. Last year, we struggled, especially at the end of the season, and it has only been three months since Abu Dhabi. We’ve done everything possible, changing 95% of the car’s aerodynamics, and we hope this brings the results we want. But everyone does a good job in the winter, and the competition will be very tight. Last year, many teams were within half a second of each other, and I don’t expect anything different in 2025. We will have to make all the right decisions.”
The arrival of the aerodynamic genius
Making the right decisions, however, statistically becomes easier with Newey in the team: “Adrian is a free spirit, and you can’t tell him what to do. If, on the day of his arrival, he can help us with the 2025 car, great. But if he prefers to focus entirely on the 2026 project, that’s fine too. That would mean he has a clear vision and doesn’t want to waste even a single day on 2025. I’ve asked Lawrence Stroll multiple times what we should expect from him, but he always tells me that he doesn’t think we’ll be able to control Newey’s work.” – the former Ferrari and McLaren driver pointed out.
Fernando Alonso on the mistakes of 2024
“In 2024,” Fernando Alonso added, lowering expectations for the upcoming season, “we lost a few months on technical developments that we thought would work but didn’t, to the point that we ended up going back to the early-season package. That weighed us down throughout the year and is still holding us back. We accumulated several months of delay, which is slowing us down in terms of development and expectations. We need to improve, put upgrades on the car, and make them work. We’ve identified the reasons, we understand where the team got lost in its attempts to improve, and why the efforts didn’t always translate into on-track performance.”
“Now we have a new approach that we believe is more solid, and that’s what I want to see,” Fernando Alonso concluded.
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