People
Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team managing technical partner and team principal; led concept and aerodynamic design of the Aston Martin Valkyrie
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The record
British Formula One designer who led concept and aerodynamic design of the Aston Martin Valkyrie at Red Bull Advanced Technologies, and who is managing technical partner and team principal of the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team.
He was born in Colchester in 1958. He graduated from the University of Southampton in 1980 with a BSc in Aeronautics and Astronautics; his undergraduate project was a sports car in the university wind tunnel. Harvey Postlethwaite hired him at Fittipaldi Automotive after every team he approached in 1980 turned him down. In 1982 he joined March, designing sports cars and IndyCars. After a mid-1986 spell at Beatrice Haas Lola he returned, and in 1988 became technical director of Leyton House March.
Williams appointed him chief designer in 1990 under Patrick Head. The FW14B of 1992 and the Newey-designed cars that followed won drivers' and constructors' titles for Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve. He moved to McLaren as technical director for 1997. The MP4/13 won both titles in 1998 with Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard, and Häkkinen repeated the drivers' crown in 1999.
He joined Red Bull Racing as chief technical officer in 2006. The RB5 of 2009 brought the team's first wins; from 2010 to 2013 the cars took four consecutive title doubles with Sebastian Vettel. After the 2014 hybrid years he returned with Max Verstappen, taking the 2021 drivers' title and both titles in 2022 and 2023. He left the Red Bull Technology Group in the first quarter of 2025 and joined Aston Martin Aramco on 1 March 2025 as managing technical partner, adding the team principal title from 2026.
From 2014 he reduced his Formula One load to create a road car at Red Bull Advanced Technologies, which he later said had been set up for this project. Aston Martin announced the AM-RB 001 partnership in 2016 and named the car Valkyrie in March 2017. He led the concept and aerodynamics: full-length Venturi tunnels generate the downforce, and openings he specified between cockpit and front wheel arches later added front downforce. Engineering was shared with Aston Martin at Gaydon.
On the Valkyrie, downforce comes from full-length tunnels either side of the cockpit, so the upper body can stay free of add-on devices. Openings between cockpit and front wheel arches were specified by him to raise front downforce.
He has said he pictures airflow in his mind's eye before drawing. At Southampton he explained that he delegates so that half his time can remain at the drawing board.
At McLaren and Red Bull the cars he designed for new regulation cycles — the MP4/13, RB5 and RB18 — were the ones that moved those teams to the front. At Williams the FW14B did the same through active suspension and refined aerodynamics.
The stations
The house
Credited through Red Bull Racing Advanced Technologies.
In the register
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In their words
“I've always been adamant that the AM-RB 001 should be a true road car that's also capable of extreme performance on track, and this means it really has to be a car of two characters.”
Adrian Newey · Aston Martin, 5 March 2017
Sources
