The arrival of Adrian Newey has brought about a “total change” at Aston Martin, with the team unaware that it would trigger a wave of personnel desperate to join the team.

That is the reveal made by former F1 driver turned Aston Martin ambassador Pedro de la Rosa, who hailed the “change” as “tremendous” since Newey began work at Aston Martin in March.

Adrian Newey to trigger Aston Martin rise?

Following his exit from Red Bull, Newey – whose designs have contributed to a total of 26 World Championship wins – signed on the dotted line with Aston Martin, taking up the newly-created role of managing technical partner, while he also became a shareholder in the team.

Newey has been tasked with mastering the upcoming new ruleset for F1 2026, when revamped chassis and engine regulations will come into effect and Aston Martin begin their era with Honda power, while Newey attended his first race with the team at the Monaco Grand Prix.

PlanetF1.com’s on-the-ground reporter Thomas Maher snapped a shot of Newey on the grid checking out Oscar Piastri’s McLaren MCL39, the Aussie currently leading the Drivers’ Championship by 10 points over McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.

Speaking with SoyMotor, de la Rosa explained that “I was never told that Adrian Newey was going to be signed” when he became Aston Martin’s ambassador in 2022 – the Brit not an available target until 2024 – but since Newey came through the door after that huge deal was sealed, de la Rosa said Aston Martin has become the place where more and more people want to be.

And that is an added bonus from signing Newey which the team did not originally take into account.

“The change is tremendous,” he declared. “Since the announcement that Newey was coming to us, there has been a total change.

“More people want to come and work at Aston Martin, from all the teams and especially from the universities. It’s something no one realised could happen, but it is happening because young engineers want to work with the big names to learn more quickly.

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“In England there is a spectacular market for engineers, because within a radius of 100 kilometres there are practically all the teams in the world. Attracting talent is very important and having Adrian has an effect of attraction, of inspiration to the new generations, to all those engineers who want to be Formula 1 engineers and who want to work with Newey to learn from him.

“That’s something that sometimes you don’t value. We always look at Adrian Newey as the figure who makes winning cars, but for us it’s very important the new generation of Neweys who want to work with him, because they will be the future of Aston Martin. Sometimes we focus on the big names, but teams win for everything, for the big names but also for unsung heroes who will one day fill that role.

“The most beautiful thing about Aston Martin is to see the internal transformation that is happening, the growth. We were about 600 people when I joined and now we are more than 900 people.”

Newey’s arrival was part of Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll’s wider investment into the team, with a new factory and windtunnel also created.

Aston Martin are looking to recapture momentum after a slide in results over recent times, having been absent from the podium since 2023.

Read next: Aston Martin countdown to replace Stroll begins as Le Mans week is underway