Formula One’s once iconic supremo, Bernie Ecclestone was credit with saying: “You join F1 as a billionaire and leave a millionaire.” Indeed the only way to make a small fortune in motor racing is to start with a large one. Of course Formula One is now enjoying its largest commercial boom in history, with each of the teams valued at a billion dollars or more.
Even so, take a moment to think of poor Lawrence Stroll – the billionaire Canadian who bought the bankrupt Racing Point F1 outfit and rebranded it as Aston Martin.
He invested in a brand new campus outside the gates of Silverstone costing around a quarter of a billion together with new technology driver in loop-simulators and a state of the art wind tunnel. With the exception of persisting with his son as one of the drivers for the team, Stroll has spared no expense to assembled a world class outfit to race in F1 under the Aston Martin brand.
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Aston Martin F1 huge missed opportunity
Adrian Newey, the greatest F1 car creator of all time is presently in charge and Andy Cowell generally considered the genius behind the 2014 all conquering Mercedes engine is liaising with Honda. Former Ferrari chassis technical director Enrico Cardile started work in Silverstone last August and prior to that Dan Fallows – an aerodynamicist and student of Newey’s work at Red Bull was recruited as well.
With the F1 technical regulations being thrown upside down this year, this was Aston Martin’s chance top shine and upset the established pecking order. Yet the reverse in fact happened. Having established themselves as a front running midfield F1 contender, Aston Martin almost missed the shakedown in Barcelona and have failed to get their cars to the chequered flag in both Grand Prix so far this season.
Having gone it alone as a worlds team in partnership with Honda, the team is suffering from another of the Japanese manufacturers ‘loss of plot’ eras. When Adrian Newey and Andy Cowell visited Honda’s HQ is Sakura Japan, what they found horrified them – but should have been discovered earlier.
The headcount required for an F1 powertrain manufacturer was nowhere near where it needed to be and the personnel in situe had little F1 experience between them. Having announced they were withdrawing from F1 in 2021, most of Honda’s best engineers left for pastures new.
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Honda woefully prepared behind the scenes
They needed but a few engineers to keep them ticking over from 2022 onwards, given the FIA froze all F1 engine development and so no further upgrades needed to be conceived. The November meeting in Japan resulted in Andy Cowell being immediately dispatched to work with the Honda engineers and Newey stepped into the role of team principal.
When Newey joined Aston Martin last spring, he was dismayed at the state of readiness of the team’s brand new facilities. He discovered the simulator was giving completely different readings to what the real life car was doing on track. This was hampering preparations for the all new 2026 cars.
When asked by The Race at the Monaco Grand Prix about his early impressions of Aston Martin, Newey was as blunt as could be. “I think it is fair to say that some of our tools are weak, particularly the driver in the loop simulator.
“It needs a lot of work because it’s not correlating at all at the moment, which is a fundamental research tool. Not having that is a limitation. But we’ve just got to work around it in the meantime and then sort out a plan to get it to where it needs to be. But that’s probably a two-year project in truth.”
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Newey’s tenure as team boss – ‘a disaster’
Even so, the paddock expectations for Aston Martin in 2026 were high, due to Newey’s reputation despite the chaos going on behind the scenes. But as the geek of an engineer he is, becoming team principal was a disaster. His oratorial skills are monotone and uninspiring, hardly what’s required to set the vision for a factory containing a thousand personnel.
His instance on perfection means at times he fails to see the big picture, which was why the team failed to be ready in time for the Barcelona shakedown in January. To be fair to Adrian, he probably knows all this better than anyone else, and now the hunt is on for someone who can be the right team principal at Aston Martin.
Yet the basket case of an F1 team appears not to be so attractive as reports emerge at least two individuals have turned down their advances. The first is Italian engineer and CEO at Audi F1, Mattia Binotto. His time as team principal at Ferrari didn’t end particularly well.
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The next candidate appears to confirm the desperation of the team, in that they approached Max Verstappen’s race engineer and Sporting Director for Red Bull Racing. ‘GP’ as he is nicknamed is a Red Bull man through and through and his commitment to Max Verstappen is total.
GP was promoted to Sporting director when Jonathan Wheatley was poached by Audi to become their team principal. But it is said Wheatley is not enjoying life in Switzerland and would be open to a role based back in the UK. The problem for Aston Martin is his gardening leave wold be extensive. They need a team principal now to sort out the mess.
The recent news that Toto Wolff is seeking kibosh Christian Horner’s acquisition of 24% of the Alpine F1 team, may mean the ex-Red Bull boss is open to other ideas. Horner was appointed from being the boss of a junior formula team when Red Bull acquired the ashes of the Jaguar F1 programme.
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Christian Horner, the right man for the job
He knows what its is like to work with a mercurial billionaire and how to keep guru Newey focused on the job in hand. Further, Lawrence Stroll would most likely give him a big slice of Aston Martin F1 equity, something Horner and Newey were never afforded at Red Bull.
Christian Horner is said to be available for an F1 return next month and with the cancelation of the Bahrain and Saudi Grand Prix there are five weeks of uninterrupted work available to the flailing team. Any objection Newey may have had to Horner becoming his boss once again, will surely have been mitigated by the humiliation he is currently suffering.
There is potential in Aston Martin to join the F1 big boys, with their state of the art facilities and apparently unlimited budget sourced from Lawrence Stroll’s deep pockets. Honda will eventually get their act together, as they did after the last debacle they suffered whilst partnering McLaren. Having lavished cash left right and centre to build his F1 team into an operation of scale, Stroll needs to persuade Horner to help him finish the job.
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With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
