Andy Cowell must U-turn on ‘weak’ Aston Martin problem as Adrian Newey spots issue that hampered Red Bull

Adrian Newey has got his feet under the desk at Aston Martin. The legendary engineer is designing the team’s car for the 2026 regulations.

Newey left Red Bull midway through 2024 to pursue a new challenge at Silverstone. The 66-year-old is solely focused on next season, but he is already affecting Aston Martin in 2025.

The Brit made his first appearance in green at a race weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix. Damon Hill says Aston Martin will benefit from Newey’s ‘magic wand’, as he can spot things most people cannot.

The Silverstone outfit have had a miserable 2025 campaign, with just 14 points from the first eight races, courtesy of Lance Stroll. F1 fans think Fernando Alonso is the unluckiest driver after his Monaco retirement kept him pointless heading into his home race in Barcelona.

Optimism is high for 2026, however, with the investment from Lawrence Stroll and Newey’s arrival setting the team up for success. Alonso is amazed by how ‘special’ Newey is, as he is unlike anyone he has ever worked with.

But since arriving at Aston Martin, Newey has been quick to notice some flaws with the operation. CEO and team principal Andy Cowell must act fast to fix the problem.

Adrian Newey spots ‘weak’ Aston Martin problem with the simulator that hampered Red Bull – Andy Cowell must act

Speaking with the official F1 website, Newey was asked what he discovered from his first few months at Silverstone. The 66-year-old shared that he found the simulator was not correlating ‘at all’.

He said: “It’s fair to say that some of our tools are weak. Particularly the driver-in-the-loop simulator needs a lot of work because it’s not correlating at all at the moment, which is a fundamental research tool.”

Newey has discovered that Aston Martin are facing the same problem as his former employers Red Bull. The Milton Keynes outfit were having issues with the simulator, as it was giving incorrect information.

Helmut Marko even told Max Verstappen to ignore the data from the simulator at Suzuka and rely on his experience – it makes his victory at the circuit all the more impressive. Christian Horner doubled down on Marko’s comments as the team desperately struggled for performance in Bahrain.

Red Bull knew the issue needed addressing, but Aston Martin boss Cowell has played down the problem with the simulator, rather than recognising how much of a problem it is.

He said: “I think whenever you create new equipment, it takes a while to commission it and then work out how well correlated either the DLS [Dynamic Lap Simulation] or the wind tunnel is with the real world here.

“So you need to do some updates, bring it to the track, you need to see how everything matches up – that’s the correlation – and even experienced teams have problems with correlation, you hear it up and down the pit lane.”

While it is true that new equipment takes time to be correlated, Cowell cannot simply ignore the problem. Given the team’s lack of performance in 2025, which could be down to the simulator’s misleading data, they must make a U-turn and act quickly with Newey to fix the issue.

READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin managing technical partner Adrian Newey

Is Adrian Newey already feeling the pressure at Aston Martin?

Given Newey’s track record, he will be expected to bring success to Aston Martin. The legendary engineer has improved teams and won everywhere he goes, building title-winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.

Newey will have the backing to succeed, but the simulator’s data could be a significant issue. Alonso cannot promise he will win again as Aston Martin do not have ‘reliable’ information that tells them if the 2026 car is competitive.

Furthermore, questions may be asked about the team’s line-up. Alonso will be 44 years old come 2026, while Stroll, despite scoring all 14 of Aston Martin’s points, is still struggling in comparison to his teammate.

Newey privately told confidantes that Stroll wasn’t good enough before he joined Aston Martin. The Canadian driver has failed to beat any of his teammates since Sergey Sirotkin in 2018.

However, Newey publicly changed his mind about Stroll recently, stating that he deserves more respect. Given Stroll’s father’s influence over the team, the Brit may already be feeling the pressure at Silverstone.