Newey to replace Cowell as Aston Martin F1 boss next season

DOHA :Adrian Newey, Formula One's star designer and top technical boffin, will take over as Aston Martin team principal next season with Andy Cowell moving into a strategy role.

The Silverstone-based team announced the senior management restructuring in a statement ahead of the weekend's Qatar Grand Prix.

Newey, whose cars have won 12 drivers' and 13 constructors' titles for three different teams, joined Aston Martin from Red Bull earlier this year as a shareholder and managing technical partner of the team.

The softly-spoken Briton previously won titles at McLaren and Williams after starting out in 1988 at now-defunct March/Leyton House.

It will be the first time the 66-year-old, who worked closely with former team boss Christian Horner and Dutch four-times world champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull, has held the position of principal.

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

"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. "

NEW ENGINE ERA IN 2026

Formula One faces a new engine era next season as well as the biggest technical rule changes in decades, and Aston Martin's big-spending Canadian billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll is impatient for success.

Aston Martin, with Stroll's son Lance and Spain's veteran two-times world champion Fernando Alonso, will be on their fourth principal in four years with Newey following Cowell, Mike Krack and Otmar Szafnauer - the latter leaving in January 2022.

After 22 of 24 races, they are languishing in