Adrian Newey has revealed he considered career opportunities outside of Formula 1 before deciding to take up his current post as Aston Martin’s Managing Technical Partner.
The technical guru signed for the British marque in September last year, after nearly two decades with Red Bull, whom he helped turn from midfielders to multiple World Champions.
Newey formally joined the Silverstone-based squad in March and has begun work on the team’s interpretation of the 2026 regulations, which he recently described as “scary”.
His experience, reputation and past successes have placed Aston Martin in the category of dark horses for next year, but the choice to join the team was not clear-cut.
Speaking to Sky F1, Newey said he reflected on his options upon deciding to quit Red Bull.
“I resigned from Red Bull for a whole host of reasons, and genuinely at that point had no idea what I was going to do next,” he said.
“So then it was kind of sitting back, thinking about it, chatting to Mandy, my wife, about what we should do.
“That ranged from kind of relax and go on sun holidays, drink lots of margaritas or something to going again to work. And then, if it’s going to be work, what would that be?”
Sailing and road car alternatives interested Newey
Two options that were on the table for Newey were in the worlds of sailing and road car production.
The former appealed to Newey owing to its technological similarities to F1, but the time span in competition and inability to rectify potential errors in design were a turn-off.
“America’s Cup is very interesting, very much a parallel universe,” he said. “Technologies are all very similar.
“The only thing I don’t like about America’s Cup is there’s no right of reply. You’ve got a competition once every four years.
“And from when the boat goes in the water to when you’re competing is two months at most. So if you haven’t got the design quite right to start with, you really haven’t got time to sort it out.
“Whereas in Formula 1, even if you don’t start the season well, if you’ve got the fundamental architecture of the car right,
you’ve got the right power unit, great drivers, then you can turn it around. And McLaren’s a very good current example of that.”
Newey had previously dipped a toe into the world of road car production – also with Aston Martin – with the Valkyrie, when the brand was a sponsor of Red Bull.
He also continued – and still does – to work on Red Bull’s RB17 Hypercar, but ultimately decided that a long-term route into this particular field was not for him.
“Road cars have always been an interest,” he explained. “I enjoyed the Valkyrie project, I am enjoying the RB17 project because I’m still involved in that.”
What swayed Newey into his move to Aston Martin and therefore staying in F1 was the sporting element and the continuity of work with one or two drivers.
“But I think what I’ve loved about my career is that combination of man and machine, sporting endeavour – the fact that every week, or very often now every week, you’re out on show.”
“If I compare that [F1] to my friends from university who went into aeronautics, working on aircraft for companies like British Aerospace or Rolls [Royce], they’re working on projects where you don’t see whatever you’re working on fly for 10 or 15 years,” he said. “There’s not a lot of feedback. So I kind of felt it needed to be man and machine, competition again.”
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