‘Independent’ Adrian Newey ‘intel’ emerges ahead of reported huge $100m deal

Damon Hill has added further weight to the theory that Adrian Newey is set to join Aston Martin, outlining factors he believes will influence the decision.

Newey’s F1 future is yet to be clarified, with the esteemed car designer – currently, the chief technical officer at Red Bull, serving out a period of soft gardening leave – set for a new challenge by the time his contract with the Milton Keynes-based squad ends by the middle of 2025.

Damon Hill: Aston Martin ‘might be one of the places’ on Adrian Newey’s list

Officially, Newey’s position has been that he intends to take a break from F1 after his Red Bull tenure formally comes to an end, having said that he’s feeling “a bit tired” after almost 40 years working in top-level motorsport.

But the rumours about his next team have swirled ever since – first, Ferrari appeared to be the most likely destination for him, but the speculation has now switched to Aston Martin.

A report from Italy’s AutoSprint has committed to this theory, stating a deal has been done and will be made official in September, while Viaplay broadcaster and former F1 driver Robert Doornbos has reported the same, as well as revealing the detail Newey has signed a $100 million deal over three years with Lawrence Stroll’s team.

These details emerged shortly after Newey’s childhood friend, famous TV presenter and journalist Jeremy Clarkson, told Viaplay at the British Grand Prix that Newey has been hunting for houses in Oxfordshire, and not in Italy, as had been the rumour regarding a potential Ferrari switch.

Aston Martin is solidly in the midfield of F1, with the AMR24 proving a somewhat subdued offering after the much more competitive AMR23 scored multiple podiums last year.

The team has been undergoing a massive infrastructure and facilities investment since Stroll took over after 2020, with the fruits of those efforts starting to yield as the new factory, simulator, and wind tunnel all near completion.

With significant commercial backing, Aston Martin is one of the teams who could afford to pay the premium salary Newey commands – which would fall outside the budget cap – and 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill addressed the possibility of such a signing as he appeared with Tom Clarkson on the F1 Nation podcast.

“I think they’re caught between two stools at the moment,” Hill said of Aston Martin.

“They’re moving into the bigger factory but they’re still using someone else’s wind tunnel. So they’re not quite fully where they want to be yet but, when they get that in place, how much they can do between now and the end of the season, I don’t know.

“I think they might be in a holding position and kind of going ‘Well, this is the best we can do with what we’ve got right now. But we really will be able to do something amazing for next year’.

“When you think about where certain people who design cars might go, that might be one of the places that could be on the list!”

With Clarkson asking Hill what intel he had on Newey, whose Williams FW18 Hill piloted to the world title in 1996, the British driver turned pundit said he’d heard from an “independent” source that Newey to Aston Martin seems likely.

“I have no intel other than someone who has nothing to do with friends of the Neweys, nothing to do with that,” he said.

“It’s completely independent of anything who came to me with a bit of information that suggested there was something on the pipeline on that front.”

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Given that Newey has hinted at being tired and worn out, Hill said he believes the 65-year-old is eager to continue in F1 – but only if he can work at his own speed.

“I think he wants to continue in Formula 1, but I think he wants to be able to do it at his leisure,” he said.

“I don’t think he wants to be under stress to do it. That’s my take on it is that he needs to be able to bring all his experience, be listened to, and be able to do the thing he knows so well.

“But, you know, it’s competitive. Whenever you bring a new person, or you arrive in a new place, you’ve got to get to know everyone else. You’ve got to know how they work. It’s a huge job. And maybe he’s got another 10 years in him doing this, I don’t know.

“But as he said himself, he’s a bit knackered, a bit tired. It is stressful because he’s competitive. So he will put pressure on himself and, after a bit, you can only do that for so long.”

Clarkson then suggested that, given Newey’s hunger and competitiveness, he is likely to “be on the pit wall” and “if he does it, I’m convinced he’ll do it flat-out because that’s the only way he knows”, which Hill agreed with.

The 1996 F1 World Champion then pointed to how Aston Martin has everything that could tempt Newey to sign with them – such as having the resources but the lack of success that could ignite his competitive side.

“Of the teams that were interested and had the capability – McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes – I think Ferrari has gone a bit cold, I think, and McLaren already has it up and running very well,” he said.

“Maybe it would be wrong to to have someone like Adrian there, I don’t know. Whereas Aston has got headroom – they’ve got the resources, and they’ve also got unfulfilled potential, which Adrian could be really useful for.”

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