If Alpine have experienced a tumultuous ride in terms of chopping and changing its leadership team, Aston Martin have now trumped them as the Formula One paddocks most chaotic competitor in terms of its internal organisation. Four team principals in just four seasons sees the Silverstone team with the highest turnover of bosses now on the grid.

Even Ferrari who tend to allow their team bosses a three year operating window before moving them on now look comparatively stable when compared the high state of flux in Silverstone.

Adrian Newey explained well the reason for the next ‘all change’ in Silverstone, crediting the former Aston Martin team boss and CEO, Andy Cowell, with the work he did in Brixworth which made Mercedes uber dominant over a decade ago.

 

 

 

Cowell ‘offered’ to manage Honda relationship

Cowell allegedly offered to manage the relationship with the team’s new power unit supplier Honda, together with the lubricant and fuel suppliers – a vital role indeed. Yet its almost December and as Alpine’s Steve Nielsen revealed in Qatar, the teams have already produced much of the all new 2026 challengers and the power unit integration should be mostly complete. Mmm.

Of course the back story before Newey’s revelation to the reason Cowell was stood down from his role was that Newey had dismissed some aerodynamicists he believed were not up to the task. Cowell was offended by this autonomous decision made by his technical director, and so a rift developed which led to Cowell being dismissed and sent to the far end of the workshop.

As pretty much every F1 commentator has noticed, Newey is known for his genius as an F1 car designer – not for his charisma, nor wit and repartee. His two interviews this weekend in Losail emphasise how uncomfortable he is in front of the camera, both addressed how important the engineering is to Adrian and that this remains his main focus.

“That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning so I’m determined not to dilute that,” the new Aston Martin boss revealed. Adrian will only take on the role as TP for next season, yet Andy Cowell was conspicuous by his absence in Qatar.

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Engineers become TP – not for their engineering skills

There is a trend in Formula One for engineers to become team principals, as is the case at McLaren, Red Bull, the Racing Bull’s and Haas F1. Yet the likes of Andrea Stella and Laurent Mekies were not promoted to the role of team principal because they were great engineers, the graduated because they demonstrated great organisational and leadership abilities they had demonstrated.

Before joining Aston Martin, Newey has not been in charge of a team of people since he stepped down from his role as technical director at Red Bull and became a part time consultant.

Several reports have emerged this weekend suggesting team insiders are depressed by the chaos at the Silverstone base. “Too many chiefs,” one suggested whilst others reflect on how confusing the organisational structure has become.

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CEO role remains vacant at Aston Martin

The instant analysis of Newey’s appointment and Cowell’s departure was based on the fact Newey was not given the title CEO. This opens the door for one to be appointed and perform all the traditional team boss roles Adrian does not eat to fulfil.

And the obvious candidate for this would be Christian Horner despite Andy Cowell stating in August he was not under consideration at Aston Martin. Cowell went on to mock the former Red Bull boss suggesting Lawrence Stroll had told him Horner was calling every team in the paddock.

Now Cowell is gone and Stroll has appointed another head of the team, who because of his desire to focus on the technical aspect of Aston Martin and his introspective character cannot fulfil the role of team principal.

Reports are now emerging that Lawrence Stroll when announcing the organisational change to the work force on Wednesday, stated the Christian Horner would not be joining the team.

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Newey’s casual style will ight wildfires in the paddock

Newey’s casual style of speaking has already led to F1 analysts believing his TP role is merely temporary. After crediting Cowell for his self sacrifice to go and play with Honda, Newey explained how he inherited the TP role.   

“That left kind of, ‘well who is going to be Team Principal’, and since I’m going to be doing all the early races anyway, it doesn’t actually particularly change my workload because I’m there anyway so I may as well pick up that bit.”

The obvious question this leads to is ‘what happens after the first few races?’ Does the magnanimous Andy Cowell return as a reward? Newey’s conversational style of dealing with the media will see him create an inordinate amount of wildfires each weekend, that the team’s PR division will spend their time putting out.

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No official comment from Aston Martin on anything

He certainly isn’t capable of handling HR, PR, media duties and finance, so an executive needs appointing to handle these functions. Despite Stroll’s apparent denial that Horner will join the Aston Martin team, its been common knowledge he’s chased the ex-Red Bull boss a number of times in recent year’s.

Stroll hasn’t come out and made his position clear on the matter and all the responses from Aston Martin so far – with the exception of Newey – have come from unnamed sources. This merely serves to increase the hype and the fuel ever more paddock rumours.

The BBC report which stated Horner had been given a guided tour under cover of darkness in Silverstone, is also now being denied by unnamed Aston Martin crew at the Qatar race weekend.

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Lance – the elephant in the room

Whoever is or becomes the real team principal or CEO at Aston Martin – must address at some pint the elephant in the room. Lance Stroll, son of billionaire team owner Lawrence, is not fit to be driving a Formula One car. Further,  its difficult to take Aston Martin seriously whilst the most obvious pay-to-drive son of a wealthy man is occupying one of the seats in the garage.

Given the time required to bed in, together with the huge regulation changes, Adrian Newey may well be biding his time before dealing with this particular grist in the millstone. Yet one thing Newey was particularly irritated about with his time at Williams and McLaren, was the lack of consultation over who wold drive his F1 car designs.

Having got the equity stake in the team and now claimed the throne of power, Newey will not be backwards in coming forwards over the future of Lance Stroll at some point. It makes sense to let sleeping dog’s lie for now, but Lance Strolls F1 career may be very soon be entering its twilight season.

 

 

 

Qatar GP cancelation threat ‘not fit for purpose’

Qatar GP: Lusail grade one certification under FIA threat or even cancelled for future Grand Prix – The Qatar Grand Prix has proved troublesome since its introduction to the Formula One calendar. Designed as a circuit for motor bike racing, the Lusail venue was meant to be a temporary solution while the organisers built a purpose built F1 track.

The first event held in 2021, saw Lewis Hamilton claim the win, but four drivers suffered front left tyre failures whilst attempting one stop strategies during the Grand Prix. Pirelli had advised against this but these teams felt they were pushed into the strategy given the lack of pace their cars exhibited on the hardest set of compounds for the year.

After a year’s absence in 2022 due to the middle eastern state holding the FIFA world cup, F1 returned to Lusail only to have further tyre trauma’s which required drastic action from the FIA…. READ MORE