Is Adrian Newey biting more than he can chew with dual Aston Martin role?

Newey's team boss role goes in parallel with the tasks he took on when he joined Aston Martin from Red Bull Racing and Managing Technical Partner.

In addition to that, the F1 design guru hasn't always projected team principal traits, as it always seemed that he preferred to stay away from F1 paddock politics.

Instead, he would spend his time working quietly in the background designing race-winning F1 cars on his drawing board while spending his time within the paddock observing rivals' cars and taking notes on his notebook.

Newey's first Aston Martin, the AMR26, was late and has so far been troubling the team, and while he has insisted that the delay was due to issues with the team's new wind tunnel and general delays as the team moved to their new headquarters.

However, the possibility that Newey is overworked is possible, and former F1 driver Johnny Herbert tackled that topic saying: "Adrian Newey has the capacity to absorb all the political elements of being a Team Principal.

"He was always under pressure at Red Bull, and he put pressure on himself when he was designing the cars because his expectations were so high.

"As team principal, it will take up a lot more of his time," he pointed out. "There are so many different elements going on. One is obviously what's going on with the compression, and that's another element he's got to be able to work on for the team to make them more competitive."

With Aston Martin having a shaky start to their 2026 F1 season, Herbert added: "It hasn't looked great so far with them being four seconds adrift. I know they've said they were a little bit behind. But it's got to happen soon because the expectations of Lawrence Stroll are so very high.

"I don't see it being a problem for Adrian if he gets a bit distracted. His focus has always been on the engine, the way his mind works and how he comes up with new ideas, fresh ideas, and keeps moving the boundaries and direction of where it needs to go to make it competitive.

"Is this going to deflect? I know he's got his team, but he's the most influential one within that team. You still see him now walking around with his notepad, looking on the grid. He's still the creative engineer that he always was. Now how does that balance work?

"Realistically, you've got to concentrate on one thing and one element. Concentrating on two things in Formula 1 is probably not the smart way of doing it," Herbert warned in conclusion. (Source: Snabbare)