Newey can help fix Aston Martin ’mistakes’ in 2025

Aston Martin is eagerly looking forward to the arrival of Adrian Newey early next year, team ambassador Pedro de la Rosa admits.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso admitted in Las Vegas that the Silverstone based outfit is "basically now the last team in Formula 1 with Sauber".

And he certainly doesn’t expect to take on Max Verstappen in 2025, either.

"I take this opportunity to congratulate Max and I hope I can be in that position soon, probably not in 2025, but with the change in regulations for 2026 I hope there is a window of opportunity for more drivers and I hope Aston Martin is among them."

Although the team’s performance has utterly collapsed since a strong early start to 2023, Lawrence Stroll is still investing heavily in Aston Martin.

"That’s what we’re here for," team ambassador Pedro de la Rosa, a former F1 driver, told DAZN, "to change the future a little, to improve with the 2025 car, to improve many of the mistakes that have been made in the design of this car.

"Above all, we are looking forward to the addition of Enrico Cardile and Adrian Newey," he added.

Newey has become known in F1 as almost a guarantee of success, but de la Rosa admits his influence will take some time. "It is true that Newey is not coming until March," he said.

"In March we are practically already into the first race of the season, but it is also true that apart from these two great signings we have a great team of engineers who also now have access to the best possible tools.

"They are a state-of-the-art simulator and a new wind tunnel," he explains. "We are not going to share or rent Mercedes’ wind tunnel anymore, we are going to have our own and I believe that these are very important factors in providing our team with the best possible tools.

"We have been testing in the wind tunnel since January, then Enrico Cardile arrives, then Adrian Newey arrives. I think it will be three or four months after that before we start to reap the rewards, but it is a very long year.

"This year we started fighting with Mercedes, and now in Las Vegas George Russell is on pole and wins. It is not how it starts, but how it ends," de la Rosa concluded.