Adrian Newey: Aston Martin name legendary designer as new F1 team principal from 2026 season replacing Andy Cowell

Adrian Newey will become Aston Martin's team principal from the 2026 Formula 1 season with Andy Cowell taking on a new role at the outfit.

Newey will combine the job with the managing technical partner role he has held since joining the team in March after 18 years at Red Bull.

It will be the first time that the 66-year-old Newey, F1's most legendary and successful car designer, has held the role of team principal since his career in the sport began in the 1980s.

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Cowell, who took over the team boss role from Mike Krack at the start of this year, will take on the new role of chief strategy officer ahead of the first season of Aston Martin's engine partnership with Honda.

Former Mercedes engine guru Cowell first joined Aston Martin in 2024 as chief executive officer before adding responsibility for day-to-day control of the team ahead of this season too.

Aston Martin's announcement said that Newey and Cowell had "agreed to divide their responsibilities in order to focus on their individual strengths and expertise, ensuring organisational efficiency".

"Over the last nine months, I have seen great individual talent within our team," said Newey.

"I'm looking forward to taking on this additional role as we put ourselves in the best possible position to compete in 2026, where we will face an entirely new position with Aston Martin now a works team combined with the considerable challenge faced by the new regulations.

"Andy's new role, focusing on the integration of the new PU with our three key partners, will be pivotal in this journey."

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Cowell said: "Having implemented much needed structural changes as we transition to a full works team and set the foundations for Adrian and the wider organisation, it is an appropriate time for me to take a different role as chief strategy officer.

"In this role, I will help to optimise the technical partnership between the Team, Honda, Aramco and Valvoline and to ensure the seamless integration of the Team's new PU, fuel and chassis."

Team boss role to maximise Newey's 'creative and technical expertise'

Reports first emerged after last Sunday's Las Vegas Grand Prix that Cowell was poised to move away from the team principal role he had held since January amid a reshuffle at the team ahead of a 2026 season when they are aiming to make a surge up the grid with Honda in F1's new regulation era.

Former Red Bull boss Christian Horner, who left that role in July, and ex-McLaren and Audi chief Andreas Seidl had been most prominently linked with Cowell's role - making Aston Martin's announcement on Wednesday that it would, in fact, be Newey who succeeded the 56-year-old relatively surprising.

However, executive chairman Lawrence Stroll says that by taking on team boss responsibilities Newey - who also has a shareholding in the team - will be able to "make full use of his creative and technical expertise".

Stroll said: "Andy Cowell has been a great leader this year. He's focussed on building a world-class team and getting them to work well together, as well as fostering a culture that puts the race car back at the heart of what we do.

"This leadership change is a mutual decision we have reached in the interest of the team. We all look forward to continuing working with him in his new capacity as chief strategy officer.

"I'm also pleased that Adrian Newey will step into the team principal role, which will enable him to make full use of his creative and technical expertise.

"Both these changes will ensure the team is best placed to play to their collective strengths."

Canadian billionaire Stroll, whose son Lance drives for the team alongside Fernando Alonso, has big ambitions for Aston Martin and has overseen a huge investment over recent years including the building of a new state-of-the-art factory at Silverstone and the recruitment of a number of F1's leading technical figures, headlined by Newey.

Aston Martin have slipped to what stands as eighth in this year's Constructors' Championship with two races to go after finishing fifth in each of the last two seasons, but have long targeted the 2026 rules revolution as their chance to join the grid's front-runners.

Aston Martin's management changes analysed

What's the reason behind the switch?

Sky Sports News' Craig Slater:

"Cowell moves on to liaise with some of Aston Martin's major partners, most notably the engine side of things with Honda, who will provide their power units from next season onwards.

"Previously that's a job he did so well with Mercedes, but essentially has he lost a power struggle within the Aston Martin set-up?

"It's my understanding that there were clashes between Cowell as team principal and Newey as managing technical partner but also, crucially, as shareholder and empowered by team owner Lawrence Stroll to run things as he saw fit.

"Now as team principal, that is what Newey will be able to do."

Could Horner still have future role at Aston Martin?

Sky Sports News' Craig Slater:

"Is there space still for a chief executive figure, perhaps along the lines of the job Zak Brown does at McLaren?

"Could that figure possibly still be Christian Horner, who had been associated with potentially succeeding Cowell as team principal himself?

"Horner cannot work within F1 until April next year. He is looking not for just a job in F1 but a stakeholding within a team.

"Is there still the potential for him to link up again with Newey despite their past differences, which we understand have been set aside, with Horner maybe taking on more of the political and 'front-of-house' roles with the media, leaving Newey to be team principal and also to devote as much of his time as possible to designing the various iterations of future Aston Martin cars?"

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