Cowell weighs on impact of "adventurous" Newey at Aston Martin

Newey has joined Aston Martin as a shareholder in addition to being the technical chief and was busy from day one focusing on the team's 2026 single-seater, their first that will be built at their brand-new Silverstone headquarters that will be under new chassis and power unit regulations with Honda being their works partner.

Newey has an unmatched success record in Formula 1 with 25 championships—12 constructors' and 13 'drivers'—and is known for his radical approach in designing his cars while still using a pencil and a drawing board.

Reflecting on his experience with Newey so far, Cowell said: "Adrian is an amazing individual. He's got great experience, but the thing he loves is being at the drawing board thinking about the design of a racing car.

"And it's not just one part on the racing car; it's the whole system, and so since March, he's spent hour after hour after hour at his drawing board just thinking about suspension concepts, the monocoque, where to put the engine, how to position the driver—all those detail architectural aspects of the racecar.

"He's adventurous," Cowell pointed out. "He's creative and adventurous, and he pushes the boundaries, and so everybody's got less volume to fit more components in, and that inspires the engineers. They look at it initially and go, 'How am I going to do that?' But they are finding ways, and Adrian helps with that.

"He doesn't just give a problem. He helps, giving detailed solutions as well, and the whole supply chain in there in the factory is enjoying working on that.

"From an idea on Adrian's drawing board to then having it running in the wind tunnel requires the model designers to create the parts and manufacturing and suppliers and bringing it all together and making sure it's a high-quality model in the wind tunnel.

"So we're doing that quicker than we've ever done before, which is exciting," the Aston Martin boss maintained.

Speaking further about Newey's design approach and the challenge it offers to the Aston Martin engineers and designers, Cowell said: "He packages ten things into the space where only one would normally fit.

"All the engineers see that as a challenge. It's not just the engineers; it's the whole group of people within the aerodynamics development area.

"The pace with which we're creating changes on the '26 wind tunnel model is quicker than we've ever done before. It really is very impressive. It is like watching 100 people all run 100 meters in sub-ten seconds, with perfect baton passes.

"It's very exciting to see, and all of that is enabled by having the facilities, and the people, and the methods. So yeah, it's an exciting journey into '26," Cowell, who previously presided over Mercedes' engine division, concluded.