Aston Martin harbour hopes of a big turnaround in 2025 following the arrival of Adrian Newey from Red Bull.
The 66-year-old joins the project with hopes of turning them into a championship-winning operation with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll behind the wheel.
Aston Martin suffered a poor 2024 campaign and fell down the pecking order, finishing fifth in the constructors’ championship.
They fired Mike Krack and moved forward with appointing ex-Mercedes engine guru Andy Cowell as team principal, who is already hard at work making changes.
One Aston Martin chief believes an Alonso complaint is 100% fixed for 2025 which should offer them a better chance to compete for points.
Newey has demanded Aston Martin stop doing one thing ahead of the season too. He wants them to save their wind tunnel hours for him to maximise them before the 2026 F1 regulations.
Andy Cowell says Aston Martin ‘dream’ of winning an F1 race in 2025
The closest Aston Martin remains to have been to winning in Formula 1 is second place, achieved by Alonso three times and Sebastian Vettel once.
They arguably had their best opportunity to triumph at the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix, but were let down by strategy amid confusing weather conditions.
READ MORE: Adrian Newey told to use overlooked talent to help Aston Martin immediately before designing their 2026 F1 car
Speaking to Sky Sports, Cowell revealed the team’s aims for the next few seasons after signing Newey to the team.
“We’re working exceptionally hard to make the racing car our prime focus. To work together in a collaborative way, a high-performance team,” he said. “We believe that working like that, the car will get quicker and quicker.
“We want to win races, we want to win championships. We would like our drivers to be first and second in the drivers’ championship. We’d love to win back-to-back championships. That’s a dream, to see the racing green car to see the chequered flag first and do it race after race after race.
“That’s the dream we’ve got, but we’re realistic. We understand that our opponents are exceptionally strong and therefore we need to set tough targets, both in terms of performance and time we achieve them.”
Why the 2025 F1 season is an open goal for Adrian Newey and Aston Martin
While Newey doesn’t want to focus too much on 2025, when he starts work he will find it difficult to resist the temptation of working on the current car if it doesn’t perform as expected.
They struggled for points in the last rounds of 2024 and unless they have found a magic solution over the winter, they could be in a similar boat for much of the upcoming campaign.
The legendary designer is in the building to focus on their efforts from next season, where they hope to be title contenders under a new deal with Honda.
READ MORE: Fernando Alonso has done something never ‘seen before’ at Aston Martin since replacing Sebastian Vettel
But if there’s the opportunity for clear and easy gains this season, there’s no reason why Newey cannot get creative with the AMR25.
If his influence works, he’s a genius and strikes fear into his opponents for the future. If it doesn’t then it will just look like he focused on the long-term and didn’t bother much with the 2025 car.
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