Adrian Newey speaks about the only way to sign Max Verstappen for Aston Martin

F1's veteran car designer Adrian Newey appeared in new Aston Martin colours for the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix. After spending two decades with the Red Bull Racing team, Newey joined the Aston Martin team in July 2024. He will take the role as a managing technical partner for the Lawrence Stroll-owned team. Ferrari and Aston Martin both wished to have Newey on their team, but Adrian Newey is more attracted to Aston Martin's future vision, and he chose to move to the Silverstone team.

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Max Verstappen to Aston Martin?

Adrian Newey is working on the 2026 Aston Martin project alongside Honda, the engine supplier. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will drive Newey’s first designed Aston Martin car next year. Newey-Verstappen-Honda is a dream partnership that has brought four F1 world titles to Red Bull Racing in the last 4 years.  Apart from that, Max Verstappen is also rumoured to move to Aston Martin next year as he doesn’t have the best package at Red Bull. 

The RB21 car has balance issues, which are not allowing Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda to unleash its full potential. Now, McLaren and Mercedes are in an advantageous position as they are moving far ahead of Red Bull in terms of pace and development. The defending Formula 1 world champion, Max Verstappen, struggles with his car, but even then, he managed to win two races this year with consistent podiums. 

Mercedes and Aston Martin are the two teams aiming for Max Verstappen next year. Though both teams are rejecting the speculations, they are very much interested in signing the Dutch driver. The advantage Aston Martin has over Mercedes is Honda and Adrian Newey. Both worked with Max for many years, and they know his working style and what he needs in a car. 

Talking about signing Max Verstappen for Aston Martin, Newey said, “Max is clearly a phenomenal talent and a supreme competitor. Part of that means that Max likes to break things down to a simple equation. And that is, choosing a team that he believes will deliver the fastest car. So if we’re to ever attract Max, the first thing we have to do is make a fast car. There’s no point in pipe-dreaming about anything else now.”

But as of now, Verstappen is likely to stay with Red Bull for the next season, and after that, he may decide on his future team. The Red Bull Racing team is building its own engine for the 2026 season with the help of Ford in their Milton Keynes Factory. They are also building a new, more advanced wind tunnel, which will be open by 2027.

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