When I asked Aston Martin team principal Andy Cowell on Thursday in Jeddah if any thought was being given to pulling him onto the 2025 project, Cowell said:

💬 “One hundred percent of Adrian’s designing time is focused on ’26…He’s focused largely on the tools we’ve been using rather than any direct performance aspect for the ’25 car.”

Cowell explained the early debut of the 2026 cars — the first preseason test is expected to take place at the end of January — plus the total overhaul of the rulebook with zero carryover from the current cars meant there was “lots of work there, and Adrian has just been focused on that.”

Newey’s feedback to Aston Martin on its design processes will naturally benefit its 2025 project, and Cowell said he was already seeing the chief technical officer help push the team on:

💬 “He is of course though, pushing for us to improve the way we operate in the tunnel, the way we operate with CFD, the way we operate with lap simulations.

“So pretty much everything, Adrian’s got thoughts on how to improve, and that’s the great thing of Adrian’s competitive drive, and he balances it up very well in ‘that bit’s fine, it’s this bit we need to work on.’”