Adrian Newey is set to step back from his team leadership role at Aston Martin to focus solely on technical matters, sources have confirmed to ESPN.
Newey became managing technical partner and shareholder in Aston Martin’s F1 team in March 2025, but took on the full team boss role this season as well when Andy Cowell was shuffled out of the same position.
Newey is now relinquishing that role. Autosport reported on Thursday that Aston Martin will hire Audi team boss Jonathan Wheatley.
Sources have told ESPN no agreement has been reached yet but that Wheatley is the likely hire.
An Aston Martin spokesperson said: “The team will not be engaging in media speculation about its senior leadership team. Adrian Newey continues to lead the team as Team Principal and Managing Technical Partner.”
Team sources have told ESPN that Newey’s role as defacto team boss was always viewed as an interim arrangement, although that was never conveyed publicly.
The new hire, the same sources said, will still answer to Newey in whatever the new structure looks like.
The role was uncharted territory for Newey, the most successful car designer in the sport.
It put him front and centre in explaining Aston Martin’s current struggles with new engine partners Honda. In Australia, Newey gave a series of news conferences which included the revaluation the engine causes such violent vibrations that both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll feared permanent nerve damage.
Sources have told ESPN a number of candidates were sounded out about the role over the past few months beyond Wheatley, including Max Verstappen’s long-time race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase and former McLaren boss Andreas Seidl.
A move for Wheatley would see Red Bull’s former sporting director leave Audi after just 10 months in the job. Wheatley worked at Red Bull with Newey for 20 years, through two different stints of dominance at the top of F1.
It is understood Newey will remain a key part of the team despite stepping back from his current role, a decision that was taken with team owner Lawrence Stroll after the Australian Grand Prix.
Stroll has invested heavily in Aston Martin becoming title contenders under the current rules set, spending big money on a state-of-the-art team headquarters opposite the Silverstone circuit. The new facility includes the team’s own wind tunnel, which came online last year.
Stroll’s plan for the new regulations also included the exclusive partnership with Honda, but so far that has been a nightmare.
Newey himself said ahead of the Australia opener that the Japanese manufacturer’s engine vibrates so much that drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll risked permanent nerve damage if they held the steering wheel too long.
Since the second race in China, video has emerged of Alonso repeatedly taking his hands of the steering wheel while driving the car due to the intense vibrations.
Neither he or Stroll have completed a race distance.
Over the course of the opening race it was revealed Honda’s engine had destroyed two of the four batteries Aston Martin can use through the entire season before incurring grid penalties
