Newey: Chance to be shareholder hasn’t been offered to me before

It seems Aston Martin, Lawrence Stroll in particular, were able to offer Newey something Ferrari couldn't; the chance to become a shareholder, something the legendary Formula 1 designer pointed out as he faced the media at the press conference during which he was announced to be joining the British team.

Asked who convinced him to join Aston Martin, Newey joked: "Lawrence! That’s easy. No, seriously, I felt as if I needed a new challenge. Towards the end of April, I decided that I needed to do something different.

"I spent a lot of time with Mandy, my wife, kind of discussing what’s next… What do we do? Do we go off and sail around the world? Do I do something different? We took a bit of time out.

"Lawrence and I have known each other off and on over the years, and we often bump into each other in the gym, particularly at the Middle East and Far East races," Newey revealed.

Newey did not have a shortage of teams showing interest in his services once he announced that he would be leaving Red Bull, but Stroll Sr. at Aston Martin was the most convincing prospect.

He continued: "As I’ve announced to everybody that I will be departing the old team, I was very flattered to have a lot of approaches from various teams, but really Lawrence’s passion, commitment, and enthusiasm were very endearing; it’s very persuasive.

"The reality is, if you go back 20 years, what we now call Team Principals were actually the owners of the teams, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Eddie Jordan, etcetera. In this modern era, Lawrence is actually unique in being the only properly active team owner.

"It’s a different feeling when you have somebody like Lawrence involved like that; it’s back to the old-school model, and to have the chance to be a shareholder and a partner is something that has never really been, or hasn’t been offered to me before.

"It’s [an opportunity] I’m very much looking forward to, and it became a very natural choice," Newey maintained.

Stroll Sr. announced at the start of the press conference that Aston Martin have just finished moving into their new AMR Technology Campus, another factor that impressed Newey, who visited it back in June.

"The building is clearly mightily impressive; it has a great feel to it," he said. "It’s a real demonstration of Lawrence’s commitment and vision of where he wants the team to get to.

"I don’t know how much it cost, but it’s not going to be cheap! I think the combination of seeing all the facilities, how nice a feel [it has] and how well thought out the building is, perhaps most of all that very visual demonstration of Lawrence…

"If I had to describe Lawrence in one sentence, I think he has total belief, he has a direction, and he’s happy to put all his chips on black, and that’s what he’s doing here," Newey concluded.