Adrian Newey Full Interview: I go into a bit of a design trance...

Newey, acknowledged as Formula 1's winningest designer when it comes to titles and outright wins, is in Monaco this weekend on an Aston Martin fact-finding mission.

To find out how his new team operates on race weekends, the one in Monte-Carlo is arguably the most challenging and will be an eye-opener for the man they all expect to put Lawrence Stroll's team at the sharp end of the F1 grid. Finally.

Of course, the F1 media descended on Newey throughout the weekend, and he indulged in an in-depth Q&A chat with F1TV's Lawrence Baretto before the race weekend in Monaco. Below is the full transcript of the interview.

Question: Adrian, great to see you. I can't believe it's been three months in the Aston Martin job, three months as a partner, three months to explore these 2026 regulations. Just how are you finding it so far?
Adrian Newey: First of all, everybody's been incredibly welcoming since I joined. Very friendly team. I’m finding my way around, obviously understanding the structure and how the team works, and that's indeed why I'm here this weekend – to see how the race team works. But it's been exciting, actually. I've enjoyed it. Lots of long hours, lots of weekends, but really enjoying the challenge.

Question: So have you found that there have been some evenings, some weekends like you say, where you're at your board and you just want to stay there because the ideas are flowing?
Newey: My wife kind of grumbles – well, not grumbles – but she observes that I do. I'm kind of aware that I go into a bit of a design trance where I'm not really very aware of what's going on around me. I guess all my limited processing power is going into thinking about how to design the car. It's funny – I remember when I started at McLaren, where we also had a big regulation change the following year. I started on the first of August, and we had a car out the following February. Cars now are so complicated, and the research tools are so sophisticated, that starting in early March, I’m struggling to keep up with the deadlines to get the car running in February.

Question: How are you finding that, though, trying to stick within those deadlines?
Newey: Trying to. Because experience does say, whilst it’s tempting to push the system and let everything slip a bit, if you let it slip too much then things can suffer a bit in the detail.

Question: And I guess you’re finding that you’re at Aston Martin which has got great facilities and great staff, but it’s taken time to gel in – so you can’t stress the system too quickly, I guess?
Newey: That’s a very fair comment. I think Aston has gone from a small team, as Jordan, and then the pink team at Paul Singer – thank you – and then into Racing Point and so forth, where it was always a small but over-performing team. It's grown hugely in a very short space of time into what it is now. And we now really need to settle down and get the organisational structure, perhaps a little bit better sorted out, work out how we all work together as effectively as possible, and develop simulation tools – because that’s one of the areas which I would say we’re quite weak in.

Question: And I imagine none of that is the work of the moment, unfortunately?
Newey: No, but it's a very enjoyable challenge. I think I’m very lucky to be starting with Andy Cowell, who I've known for very many years, so we can divide up our responsibilities and both get on with our respective jobs.

Question: I remember when it was announced that you were coming to the Aston Martin team, you first spoke to the media, it felt like you were going to get a lot of freedom in this job. Has that been the case for these first three months?
Newey: Yeah, I think I’ve always – well, yeah, really always, way back to my Leyton House days – tried to make sure that the way I operate within the team gives me a lot of freedom. So I try to have very few direct reports.

Question: How have you found the 2026 project and chasing that direction? We talked about the limitations that you've got to work within. But I guess when you're trying to be that fabric and you're trying to go for it, it must be quite challenging to balance trying to get it done but not going too far?
Newey: The big thing you always have when you have a big regulation change like that is all teams are resource-limited. And I think because of our newness, if you like, we are perhaps particularly resource-limited in a few areas. So what does that mean? It means that you can't explore lots of different avenues. I always like to use the analogy of a mountain – maybe you’ve got three mountain tops out there, and you decide to start climbing one mountain. You don’t know whether ultimately that’s going to have a higher peak than a mountain over there, but you’ve got to go through the valley before you can explore one of the others. And because of our limited resources, we've got to really choose one avenue, pursue that, and hope it's a reasonably fruitful one.

Question: So, when you've been trying to explore that one avenue, and you've got the 2026 regs within your sights, have you felt like you've found really positive solutions? Or is it not that simple – do you not know until you see the car out on track?
Newey: That’s the great thing about Formula One. You've got absolutely no idea – between seasons, when there’s no regulation change, but especially when there’s such a big regulation change. We know what we’re doing, but we’ve got no idea what that is in relation to what everybody else is up to.

Question: And in changing the engine regs at the same time as the aero regs – is this maybe the biggest or most expansive change you’ve ever experienced?
Newey: I can’t think of another time when there’ve been both chassis and power unit regulation changes at once. And the integration, because of the energy limitation of these regulations, then it’s a very tough rule that has a big effect on the chassis itself. So it is complicated. It's an opportunity, clearly. I think the other thing that is a big change is that the weight limit is 220 kilos lighter, but the cars naturally will be heavier because of the power units and the size of the battery and so forth. So, trying to get down to the weight limit is a big, big change.

Question: Is there another challenge for you – that you’ve come in, you’ve seen the 2025 kind of struggles there, and I imagine you want to get in to try and help. Bbut equally, you’ve got to try and focus on the 2026 project. So I think you said lunchtime chats is probably what you’ve extended to. Has that been tricky to kind of keep yourself away?
Newey: I'm quite disciplined like that, I suppose, and tend to be, as I said earlier, a bit tunnel vision. So I've been really concentrating on the ’26 car. But yes, doing lunchtime chats with a small core team that’s working on the ’25 car, and will do for a few months yet. We'll have an upgrade somewhere around Silverstone time. So I've just been having lunchtime chats with that core team, pottering up, discussing ideas, putting a few ideas in. We'll see where we get to.

Question: And just finally – obviously you mentioned you're here, first race with Aston Martin to kind of have a look at what’s going on. I always see you with a notebook – what do you think you’re going to be filling that with this weekend?
Newey: Well, it’s the first time I've seen these cars – this year’s cars – at all, and I haven't actually spent very long studying photographs of them either. So it will be, for me, interesting to see what everybody’s been up to over the winter and the first few races, and see how the teams have changed their cars relative to last year.