Breaking news has been coming thick and fast with Sergio Perez releasing his statement about leaving Racing Point and then this being followed by the worst secret in F1 since Fernando Alonso’s Renault return. As you most likely know by now, Sebastian Vettel will join Racing Point in 2021 when they rebrand as Aston Martin. Sebastian Vettel is a huge name in F1 and with four Formula One Drivers’ titles it is clear to see what he will bring to the team. However, there is now speculation that the man who designed those championship winning cars for Vettel is also on Aston Martin’s radar. The name of this man is motorsport legend Adrian Newey. 

Adrian Newey currently plies his craft as the chief technical officer of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team. The job of Newey is to design race winning cars and this is something he has achieved for several decades, having created title-winning cars for McLaren, Williams and Red Bull. This feat makes him the only designer to have won the Formula One Constructors’ Championship with three different teams and now Formula Uno AT (Analisi Tecnica) has speculated that Aston Martin will be tempted to bring Adrian Newey on board. 

F1 loves speculation and I would go so far as to say that it thrives on speculation so let’s assess today how likely such a signing could be.  

The reason such an idea comes about readily is due to Adrian Newey’s association already with Aston Martin seeing how Newey was heavily involved with the design of the Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar. Unfortunately, the race car aspect of this idea has fallen away due to the current economical climate following the epidemic. As such, his attention is fully shifted back to Red Bull Racing, as commented on by Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner: 

“Obviously the last three or four years he’s been very much involved in the Valkyrie project during a period where he didn’t enjoy Formula 1 quite as much because, with the power unit we had at the time, we couldn’t compete,” Horner said. 

“Now obviously he sees that we’re in a much more competitive position. So I think he’s enjoying what he’s doing, he’s motivated. It keeps him young. And he’s still got a huge work rate which keeps the young guys on their toes.” 

This shows Christian Horner is confident of retaining Adrian Newey’s services and 2021 is locked in due to regulations but what of 2022?  

Formula Uno AT (Analisi Tecnica) predict that this may bring a change about stating that the technical argument Lawrence Stroll made to Sebastian Vettel must have been very convincing.  

From this, one has cause for speculation that Aston Martin’s number one goal would seem clearer: to bring a technician of the highest profile on board. Other than Christian Horner’s praise for Adrian Newey, there are no open details about the duration of the existing contract between Red Bull and Newey, except that the last renewal dates back to 2016...some time ago now.  

Red Bull’s co-founder Dieter Mateschitz is certainly not going to let a man like Adrian Newey be released from Red Bull Racing at ease but it is very clear that Lawrence Stroll intends to build a successful team and he also has enough funds to rival the Austrian tycoon and bring people on board to make Aston Martin a great team. 

As great as it would be to see Sebastian Vettel back driving an Adrian Newey racing car I cannot see it happening due to the fact that Red Bull Racing has been so desperate to make Max Verstappen an F1 Drivers' Champion if not the youngest ever Formula One Drivers' Champion. However, such a goal seems overly ambitious seeing how a certain Sebastian Vettel holds the title at present having won the Drivers’ Championship for Red Bull Racing aged 23 years and 134 days in the 2010 F1 season. Max Verstappen turns 23 on September 30th which means 2020 is his final chance he has to take Vettel’s title. 

No one knows what the future holds but clearly with a future appointment such as Adrian Newey, Aston Martin would increase their prospect of success and also damage the chances of a rival. It will be interesting to see what happens next but in the meantime all we can do...is speculate.