Newey office, drawing board, ready for Monday

Feb.28 (GMM) Adrian Newey’s new office is ready and waiting for him to start work on Monday, reveals Aston Martin CEO Andy Cowell.

Newey, 66, left Red Bull amid the team’s internal chaos last year and has been on ‘gardening leave’ ever since.

He therefore has had nothing to do with Aston Martin’s 2025 car, including the innovative air intake that long-zoom cameras spotted next to the halo at the Bahrain test.

Cowell, best known as Mercedes’ former engine boss, only started work at Silverstone in October.

“Everyone is very excited to work with Adrian,” he told reporters in Bahrain. “His track record speaks for itself.

“So we are looking forward to welcoming him and integrating him as you would with a new employee. Even though it might be a little bit different with him.

“We’ll start working on introducing him to the key technical players in our company, show him the tools to design the car and then we will get down to work on creating a car for 2026 and contributing to improvements for 2025.

“I am sure he will get the hang of it much quicker than I did,” Cowell smiled.

Tellingly, however, he strongly hinted that Aston Martin’s key focus this year will be on the all-new regulations for 2026, with Honda also arriving as works engine supplier.

“For us, there are areas of our business that are already 100 percent focused on 2026,” said Cowell. “So the conceptual engineering groups are focused only on 2026, because 2025 is already done from their perspective.”

As for whether Newey’s brand new office at the factory in Silverstone is ready, complete with his famous old-school drawing board, Cowell smiled: “I could show you a picture, but there are too many of you here to look at my phone.

“But yes, the office is ready. The drawing board is there.”