Season 6 of the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive opens with a deal with Aston Martin, and proprietor Lawrence Stroll’s quest to construct a championship workforce. “I’m not somebody who might sit on the seashore all day, or play golf. I’ve all the time fought for profitable at no matter I did. It’s what drives me, it’s what motivates me, and it’s what excites me,” declares Stroll at an elaborate occasion in Antibes, a seaside metropolis in southeastern France.
The following piece to that profitable puzzle is now in place.
Aston Martin has begun an enormous transformation in recent times, from breaking floor on a modernized manufacturing unit to touchdown veteran — and former champion — Fernando Alonso as one among their two drivers. However on Tuesday the workforce introduced their newest addition, introducing legendary designer Adrian Newey as the newest member of their administration workforce.
A transfer that would reshape your complete System 1 grid.
From the second Newey introduced that he was leaving Purple Bull on the finish of the 2024 F1 season, hypothesis flowed via the paddock relating to his subsequent vacation spot. Newey was linked with each workforce on the grid, with many speculating that the legendary engineer would land at Ferrari, however finally Stroll — and his imaginative and prescient for the longer term — gained out.
After all, the astronomical determine seemingly performed a job. In line with a number of experiences, Newey’s deal is value roughly $20 million per season. However a return to the grid makes good sense when you think about his historical past. As we argued earlier this season, by coming again to the grid for subsequent season Newey has an opportunity to resolve F1’s subsequent puzzle: The upcoming technical laws that go into impact for the 2026 season.
A part of the great thing about the game is that F1 is as a lot an engineering downside to resolve via creativity as it’s a race to be gained by sheer driver talent, bravery, and dedication. F1 continually revises the foundations and laws for the game, with some years providing greater and bolder modifications than others.
The 2026 season gives maybe a number of the largest modifications in current reminiscence, as the game’s governing physique confirmed in June a daring departure from the present set of laws … which had been instituted for the 2022 season.
A brand new set of laws offers Newey the prospect to face in entrance of his legendary drafting board and, pencil in hand, start work on fixing a brand new riddle.
It’s, in his personal phrases, the a part of the game he loves finest.
“I do get pleasure from regulation modifications,” Newey is quoted as saying in The System. “Maybe the a part of my job I get pleasure from probably the most is determining what these laws imply, what’s their intention, and if a refined distinction permits [us to explore] new horizons.”
This can be a puzzle that Newey has usually solved effectively, with the RB5 and the RB18 maybe two of the perfect examples.
However why Aston Martin? That piece of the choice rests with Stroll’s imaginative and prescient for constructing a championship workforce. In touchdown Alonso, Stroll introduced a former champion into the fold. In breaking floor on their new three-building manufacturing unit, full with a modernized wind tunnel, Stroll pulled your complete operation into the fashionable age. The workforce introduced that the “second section” of that development was full on Monday with this submit on social media:
Now with Newey, Stroll has the visionary to carry their vehicles into that age as effectively.
“Actually probably the most thrilling information in our Aston Martin F1 historical past,” mentioned Stroll on the workforce’s reside occasion from the AMR Expertise Campus. “Adrian Newey will probably be becoming a member of us as a shareholder, and the technical supervisor of our System 1 workforce.
“Adrian, arguably, is the best on this planet at what he does.”
“Lawrence,” mentioned Newey when requested what introduced him to Aston Martin.
“I felt as if I wanted a brand new problem,” continued the designer. “Actually, Lawrence’s ardour and dedication and enthusiasm may be very endearing. It’s very persuasive.
“On this fashionable period, then Lawrence is exclusive in being the one correctly lively workforce proprietor. It’s a unique feeling when you might have any person like Lawrence concerned like that.”
“As I discussed now we have a robust workforce, a few of which Adrian has already labored with. Adrian goes to be the technical managing associate of that workforce,” described Stroll when requested how Newey matches in with that imaginative and prescient for Aston Martin’s future.
“It’s not a straightforward factor to do to construct a model new manufacturing unit and have a very nice, heat, inventive really feel to it,” mentioned Newey. “I’ve seen some new buildings that haven’t fairly fulfilled that. However this one has a terrific really feel.
“I’m so wanting ahead to beginning.”
Newey additionally addressed the brand new laws.
“On the chassis facet, the aerodynamic laws will probably be introduced first or second of January. I will probably be becoming a member of two months into that, and so it will likely be a case of getting myself up to the mark as fast as doable,” mentioned Newey. “The 2026 guidelines are a possibility, whether or not we’ll be capable of capitalize on that or not, we simply don’t know, however I don’t spend too lengthy fretting on these.”
“Adrian is vital, key, key, and the largest a part of the puzzle definitely from a technical viewpoint,” mentioned Stroll. “And I believe that can have a trickle down impact all through the entire group.”
Some could view Newey’s choice to land with Aston Martin as a guess on Alonso. In any case, in an interview with BBC Sport from November of 2023 Newey listed by no means working with Alonso as one among his “regrets” in F1. “Nicely, clearly at the beginning to have had an extended relationship with Ayrton [Senna],” Newey instructed BBC Sport. “When it comes to drivers, Fernando is one I’ve all the time… That’s a remorse that that by no means occurred as a result of I’ve an amazing respect for Fernando.”
Now Newey may have that likelihood.
However provided that Alonso is on the again 9 of his driving profession — the driving force conceded earlier this summer time that the top of his profession is nearing — there’s extra to this transfer from Newey’s perspective. Alonso is a part of the piece, however that is additionally an enormous guess on Stroll’s imaginative and prescient for Aston Martin, from the amenities all the way down to the automobile itself.
Returning to that season-opening episode of Drive to Survive Stroll continues his remarks on the seaside gala with the next assertion: “I had a imaginative and prescient of making the best automotive, high-performance firm on this planet. To have the ability to combat and win might be the toughest factor on this planet,” mentioned Stroll. “I’ve owned many firms in my life.
“There’s nothing like profitable in System 1.”
However that was not all Stroll mentioned in that episode. In a sit-down with Netflix producers Stroll added this forward of the 2023 marketing campaign. “We’re fairly assured, they’re each nice drivers,” mentioned Stroll. “We’ve a robust automobile and I consider with my imaginative and prescient, with my enterprise sense, and with my pockets, I’ll be capable of create among the finest System 1 groups on this planet.”
Newey’s choice is a guess that Stroll is correct, and this announcement is a guess by Stroll that Newey is the ultimate piece to finish that imaginative and prescient.
