It is not Aston Martin who is suing Adrian Newey, but also Max Verstappen, according to an article in a major Italian publication.
After claiming that Adrian Newey has selected Aston Martin for his next stint in F1 once he leaves Red Bull, Italian publication AutoSprint claims that team owner Lawrence Stroll is negotiating with Max Verstappen.
On Thursday, AutoSprint claimed that Newey would sign up for Aston Martin next year once he leaves Red Bull completely, for whom he will take some time off on gardening leave as he awaits his term as technical director.
The report suggests that Newey has been influenced through a significant bid from billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll, which will allow Newey to continue operating in the United Kingdom with a team that has seen significant investments and innovations in infrastructure/facilities in recent years.
AutoSprint claims that Newey will be announced at Aston Martin in early September, but the claims don’t stop that from happening: the report also claims that Stroll intends to tempt Max Verstappen to stay with Newey and sign up for his team, and that negotiations between the two parties have already begun ahead of 2026.
Verstappen remains under contract with Red Bull until 2028, speculation abounds this year that the Dutch driver is contemplating moving to other teams, and Mercedes’ Toto Wolff has made it clear that he prefers to upgrade to Lewis Hamilton when the seventh moment comes. The F1 world champion is leaving for Ferrari.
But if Mercedes is rarely where Verstappen is seen, could it simply be Aston Martin?Certainly, securing the facility for Newey, who oversaw the design of Verstappen’s title-winning Red Bulls, would be a big card to play for Stroll to take such negotiations, but he would also meet with former Red Bull aero director Dan Fallows. and, of course, Honda.
The Japanese manufacturer, whose engines have become F1’s benchmark in 2021 just as the existing engine freeze was introduced, will leave the Red Bull groupings after 2025 to move into an exclusive deal for Aston Martin. Verstappen has a close relationship with Honda and would possibly consider the proposal to continue racing its engines as a more tempting offer than the unproven prospect of the Red Bull PowerTrains project that Red Bull has embarked on for the new regulatory cycle.
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AutoSprint says the negotiations are similar to the adjustments between Benetton and Ferrari after 1995, when Michael Schumacher, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne left the world champion team to join Maranello.
If any of the reports turn out to be accurate, the big question is what will happen to current drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. The suggestion is that Stroll could be transferred to the Aston Martin WEC programme to drive the Valkyrie, a car created through Red Bull and Aston Martin as part of a collaborative effort with Newey as designer.
According to AutoSprint, in relation to the hypotheses regarding Newey, the Italian publication states that negotiations between the two parties have been stalled for a long time and Ferrari has been surprised by the departure of Enrico Cardile, as its technical director leaves the shipment to Aston Martin – the point is that the lawyers are intervening to talk about your period of gardening leave.
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