How will Adrian Newey's move to Aston Martin affect the 2025 standings?

2025 is shaping up to be a dramatic year for F1, with five new rookies joining the grid and landmark changes like Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari. But drivers aside, other often behind-the-scenes players in F1 are likely to have a huge impact on this year’s results.

One such player is Adrian Newey, the legendary designer of no less than twelve title-winning cars. Recently, these have included the ‘rocket-powered’ RB18 and RB19, the two cars that propelled Max Verstappen to victory in 2022 and 2023. Newey was also behind Red Bull’s greatest cars before the end of the V8 era, winning the team four consecutive constructors’ championships between 2010 and 2013. However, after 19 successful years together, Newey will part ways with Red Bull for the start of the 2025 season, joining Aston Martin instead.

In a statement on the Oracle Red Bull Racing website, Newey said that he was grateful to the team for having helped him ‘make [his] dream a reality,’ but that he feels he needs to move away to ‘seek new challenges.’ If a challenge is truly what he wants, then Aston Martin is an ideal destination, with the team having seen only some success over the past few years. A brief renaissance at the start of 2023 saw them gain an unexpected but euphoric six podium finishes – a feat which now looks to be a fluke. Aston Martin boast only one pole position, and a highest constructors’ championship finish of fifth place.

However, their surprise (though short-lived) success in 2023 suggests that they do have the means to go further, though perhaps were just lacking the right person to lead the charge. Given the resounding success of his already thirty-one-year strong career, it looks likely that Adrian Newey could be the man for the job. Moreover, having signed a five-year contract, he’s set to remain with the team until at least 2030. This could be instrumental in helping Aston Martin navigate the impending rule changes coming in 2026, the same year that they will enter a new partnership with Honda as their engine supplier. It should be noted that Honda also provided the engines for Newey’s dominant RB18 and RB19 – two cars which also emerged amongst a flurry of regulation changes.

On an estimated £20 million a year deal, there’s no question that Aston Martin view Adrian Newey as a powerful asset. Will this be the year they finally free themselves of the midfield? Will Newey’s exit spell the end of Red Bull’s recent dominance? As it stands, there’s still all to play for.