Adrian Newey started work at Aston Martin at the beginning of this month. It’s the first time he’s moved teams since joining Red Bull from McLaren ahead of the 2006 season.
When Newey arrives in the paddock in British racing green, it will be a surreal sight. He has become synonymous with Red Bull since they arrived in F1.
Indeed, he’s had varying degrees of design influence on all eight of their championship-winning cars to date. It’s been almost a year since he handed in his surprise resignation.
While Newey was chiefly an engineer, he exerted a degree of influence over the team’s driver decisions. And a report from The Mail has revealed that he was opposed to the signing of Yuki Tsunoda.
Red Bull repeatedly overlooked Tsunoda, most notably in December last year when they split with Sergio Perez. But they have finally given him a chance after rapidly losing faith in Liam Lawson, and he’ll make his debut at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Adrian Newey believed new Red Bull signing Yuki Tsunoda was ‘too prone to tantrums’
The report states that Newey was influential in Red Bull’s move for Lawson last year, even though he was about to leave. He had pushed back on the prospect of signing Tsunoda.
The Briton believed the Racing Bulls driver was ‘too prone to tantrums’ and regarded him as a ‘toy-thrower in the cockpit’. He ‘swayed’ many of his colleagues in the engineering department by making this argument.
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Meanwhile, Max Verstappen’s camp were largely ambivalent on the teammate issue. He hasn’t been ‘crazy’ about partnering Tsunoda, but more than that, he sees Lawson’s demotion as ‘harsh’.
Tsunoda likened himself to a Monsters Inc character last year, admitting that he has been guilty of emotional outbursts in the cockpit. To his credit, these have become a far less regular occurrence since the start of 2024.
Adrian Newey has already expressed major concerns over Aston Martin drivers
Newey’s move to Aston Martin has strengthened the Silverstone outfit’s links to Verstappen. And the aforementioned report states that the four-time world champion is ‘less than happy’ with this week’s developments.
Talk of a ‘crisis’ may be premature given that Verstappen is only eight points behind Lando Norris in the standings and Red Bull still have so much time to improve their car. However, the picture of chaos can only hurt Christian Horner’s chances of keeping him long-term.
Martin Brundle believes Newey could tempt Verstappen to join Aston Martin, who offer an increasingly attractive package for the 2026 regulation changes. They will also race with the Honda engines that have powered all of the Dutchman’s title-winning cars.
Meanwhile, his old colleague has already expressed reservations over Aston’s exiting drivers. Newey doesn’t think Lance Stroll is good enough, and suspects Fernando Alonso is now too old at 43.
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