Adrian Newey reveals gym meets and ‘unique’ Lawrence Stroll factor

F1 design great Adrian Newey has revealed the key factors behind his decision to join Aston Martin.

The legendary 65-year-old designer will start work as Aston Martin’s Managing Technical Partner on March 1 2025 following his exit from Red Bull. Newey has reportedly signed a five-year contract worth up to a potential £30m a year.

Newey revealed Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll had a huge influence on his final decision, having been convinced by the Canadian billionaire’s ambitious plans to turn the Silverstone outfit into world championship contenders.

"Lawrence and I have known each other off and on over the years," Newey said at a press conference held by Aston Martin at Silverstone on Tuesday. “We often bump into each other in the gym, particularly at the Middle East and Far East races. 

"So, as I kind of said, when I announced to everybody that I would be departing the old team, I was very flattered to have a lot of approaches from various teams.

"But really, Lawrence's passion and commitment and enthusiasm is very endearing. It's very persuasive. The reality is, if you go back 20 years, then what we now call team principals are actually the owners of the teams, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Eddie Jordan, etc, etc.

"In this modern era, Lawrence is actually unique in being the only properly active team owner. And I think that does bring a different feeling when you have somebody like Lawrence involved, like that.

"It's back to the old school model and to have the chance to be a shareholder and a partner, is something that has never been offered to me before. So it's a slightly different slant. It's one I'm very much looking forward to. It became a very natural choice.”

Newey was at one stage heavily tipped to join forces with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, while he was also linked with the likes of McLaren and Williams. In the end, it was Aston Martin who won the race to secure his highly-coveted services.

Asked why he opted for Aston Martin over other teams, Newey replied: "Lawrence, that's easy! No, seriously. I think I felt as if I needed a new challenge.

"And so kind of towards the end of April, I decided I needed to do something different. Spent a lot of time with Mandy, my wife, kind of discussing, 'Okay, what's next? What do we do? Do we kind of go off and sail around the world? Do I do something different, America's Cup or whatever?'

"So we took a bit of time out, and I felt I've been lucky enough to have achieved what I aspired to from the age of 10 or 12, which is simply to be a designer, I don't even use the word engineer, in motor racing.

"And I can honestly say, everything else has been a bonus, having sort of achieved that straight out of uni.

"I never, of course, expected anything like what I've been lucky enough to be involved with, but you have to be honest with yourself, you have to keep yourself fresh. And so I felt I needed a new challenge. So took a bit of time off."