Parc Ferme: Adrian of Arabia

His natural landing ground appeared to be Maranello. Lewis Hamilton had just announced he would be joining Ferrari, and the Hollywood script synopsis was a slam dunk: Adrian Newey, the GOAT F1 designer, pens a car for the GOAT F1 constructor that takes the GOAT F1 driver to the GOAT number of World Championships. Boom, who could resist making that film?

It turns out that Newey can. He probably told Ferrari: "You’re fabulous, but this part is not for me." The rumours that he would join the Saudi Aramco-backed Aston Martin team have been doing the rounds for a while. Now it’s official. Formal confirmation by both parties was delivered in Aston Martin Racing's state-of-the-art facilities at Silverstone. The GOAT script is now in the bin.

Backed by the Saudi money in the form of Aramco sponsorship, Lawrence Stroll’s short-cut playbook perfectly aligns with that of his investors: throw huge amounts of money at the problem. For those who do not have an almost endless supply of cash, it can seem like their prayers have been answered.

However, beware of poisoned challenges. Non-delivery at the pace required is not an option. Not a problem for most in F1, but when you work for a control freak who sits above the blame line, you quickly understand your fate is not necessarily of your own making.

Newey has cleverly anticipated this by gaining a share in the production company and its take, a move that underlines his eye for detail and commercial shrewdness. On the flip side, he has also sold his soul.

20% on rotten tomatoes? No doubt, Stroll Senior hopes the maverick designer can direct the construction of a car that even Junior can win a racing Oscar with. It’s not that Lance Stroll is a bad driver, but James Vowles said it best about one of his peers: “He’s good but not special.” Hope’s spring is eternal, though. No love is greater than that of a father for his son... or pockets deep enough in this case.

However, the moment that Adrian could manifest the Stroll miracle may well have passed. Time has moved on, and he will not have the knowledge drop over everyone else on the 2026 regulations as he had with the 2022 version.

Additionally, the engine bit will be a larger component of success this time around. Adrian only does chassis and air and insists the PU part fits around his work, not the other way around.

So, the question is, can Newey deliver a World Championship-winning chassis for AMR? For Fernando Alonso, yes, sure, why not? For Lance...nah. It hasn’t stopped Dad sucking in investors to try and make the latter happen, though. Sometimes, you can’t help but feel everything else is a sideshow next to this very personal objective.

Parc Ferme believes in Lawrence Stroll’s ‘force of will’ to jackhammer Aston Martin into a F1 World Championship-winning team. It will probably fulfil the team's wish list, unfortunately apart from his own. It is possible that love may not be the only thing you can’t buy - a GOAT, is another example.