Adrian Newey is “not doing well”, according to his former colleague Helmut Marko, who says he has been in contact with the Aston Martin team principal.
Newey’s position as team principal looks set to change as he searches for his long-term successor. It has been a troublesome start to the year, one which has Aston last in the standings.
Newey was the star signing of an Aston Martin team that had lofty ambitions but instead, it would appear the former Red Bull designer has bitten off more than he can chew in combining the role of designing the car and leading the team.
Newey has found the Aston Martin team principal role “a little bit” distracting from his design-and-development work with the AMR26 car.
As reported by PlanetF1.com last week, Jonathan Wheatley, who Newey worked with at Red Bull, has been identified as Newey’s primary choice for the team principal role, and the Briton was confirmed to have left his job at Audi last week.
In the meantime, Newey’s former colleague Marko has been speaking to Austrian outlet oe24 and revealed he has spoken to his long-term associate.
“I’ve been in contact with him. He’s not doing well,” Marko said. “There are problems with this project that won’t be solved quickly.”
In terms of those problems, Newey has pointed the finger at Honda. Ahead of the season, Newey revealed Aston were only made aware of the issues at the Japanese power unit supplier in November.
“We only really became aware of it kind of November of last year when we – Lawrence (Stroll), Andy Cowell and myself – went to Tokyo to discuss as rumours starting to suggest that their original target power they wouldn’t achieve for race one,” he said.
“Out of that came the fact that many of the original workforce had not returned when they restarted.”
Aston have in the meantime tried to calm down talk surrounding the team with Lawrence Stroll suggesting their team principal role was not like others.
“With the current speculation surrounding Adrian Newey’s role in our team, I want to take this opportunity to set the record straight,” Stroll said.
“As Executive Chairman and Controlling Shareholder, I would like to reaffirm that Adrian Newey is my partner and an important shareholder. He is AMR’s Managing Technical Partner, and he and I have a true partnership built on a shared vision of success for the company.
“We do things differently here, and while we don’t currently adopt the traditional Team Principal role that you see elsewhere – it is by design.
“As the most successful engineer in the history of the sport, Adrian’s primary focus is on the strategic and technical leadership, where he excels. He is supported by a highly skilled Senior Leadership Team to deliver on all aspects of the business, both at the Campus and trackside.
“We are regularly approached by senior executives of other teams who wish to join Aston Martin Aramco, but in keeping with our policy, we do not comment on rumour and speculation.”
