Unearth Your Greatness: Building for 2026 with Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey (pictured), Formula 1’s design maestro famed for his iconic sketches at the drawing board, has a counterintuitive secret to innovation: it’s not solitary genius that fuels his best work, but the electric hum of collective brainstorming.

Now serving as Managing Technical Partner at Aston Martin F1 Team, Newey is at the helm of crafting the squad’s 2026 challenger—a clean-sheet revolution under sweeping regulations that scrap nearly every one of the current car’s 15,000 components. Amid this “mammoth exercise,” he insists success won’t stem from his blueprints alone. Instead, it demands harnessing the full ingenuity of the team’s 300-strong engineering corps, fostering a culture where ideas flow freely and every voice shapes the machine.

In a revealing interview released Thursday, produced for principal sponsor Ma’aden and themed around “Unearth Your Greatness,” Newey peeled back the curtain on his factory rhythm and philosophy. “Collaboration is by far the most important aspect—often more so than individual talents,” he emphasized. “It’s about how we work together, communicate effectively, and draw the best out of one another.” For him, that translates to roughly 50% of his days immersed in teamwork: intimate one-on-ones, clusters around CAD workstations, or strategy huddles. He candidly prefers the smaller-scale sparks—”Big meetings can easily devolve into procedural updates without igniting fresh ideas, and that’s the real magic we need”—but stresses a balanced blend keeps momentum alive.

Yet the 2026 timeline’s vise grip is dragging him into more isolation than ideal. “We’re under intense pressure to lock in major architecture—the gearbox first, then chassis, front and rear suspension—for January testing,” Newey explained. That means the other half of his time is glued to the drawing board, dissecting CFD simulations, vehicle dynamics models, and more, to forge a cohesive concept. “Honestly, I’m spending a bit more than I’d like there, but I never want it to happen without everyone’s involvement and buy-in.” He views his role holistically: weaving aerodynamics, mechanical design, and simulation into a “unified product—not just in detail, but in its overarching concept,” a process he finds endlessly captivating.

The regs overhaul amplifies the stakes, with power units tilting heavily electric and rippling through chassis and dynamics in ways yet to fully unfold. “It’s a very complicated equation,” Newey noted, acknowledging inevitable setbacks. “There will be bumps—enjoy the highs, but remember, the lows always shift.” Even as AI and data tools proliferate, he champions human spark: “It still takes people to dream up the ideas and wield those tools effectively.” Curiosity, he urges, is the engine: “Be inquisitive. Chat with colleagues. Ask questions—without pestering, of course.”

Drivers, too, remain irreplaceable in this data-drenched era. “They’re wonderfully intuitive creatures, adapting on the fly to a car’s quirks,” Newey said. Simulator work demands “drivers-in-the-loop” over synthetic proxies, as no model yet captures the human “feel” that unlocks true speed. “You could argue their role is even more vital now, blending gut instinct with precise data to pinpoint gains.”

Aston Martin poached Newey to vault toward podium contention, but he grounds expectations in the team’s recent whirlwind expansion. “We’ve grown rapidly; now it’s about settling everyone, getting us clicking as a unit,” he reflected. Rigid milestones? Not his style. “I’ve never believed in dictating, ‘Achieve this by then.’ True satisfaction blooms from collective progress.”

On 2026’s ultimate verdict? Newey stays pragmatic: “The honest answer? I have no idea. We’re deep in transformation—and if we nail the collaboration by then, that’ll be our first big win.”