Mark Hughes: Aston's F1 superteam can prove it's worthy of Verstappen

In all of Formula 1 history there’s never been anything quite like the Aston Martin team as it is currently poised; a fabulously equipped, lavishly financed blank canvas ready for two of the sport’s greatest winning minds – Andy Cowell and Adrian Newey - to imprint their vision upon.

Everything is freshly in place for title-busting success, but almost in virginal form, with nothing yet achieved, not really. 

A flurry of Fernando Alonso podiums in early 2023 doesn’t even scratch the surface of Lawrence Stroll’s ambitions for the team which with around three times as many people and a vastly bigger budget finished one place lower in the constructors championship last year than the threadbare Force India version managed in 2016 and ’17.

But the potential of the latest iteration of the team is off the scale. It’s all waiting to be unleashed to potentially devastating effect, certainly from the regulation change of ’26 onwards. No wonder rumours of Max Verstappen heading in that direction keep swirling this winter.

Over the last five years or so Lawrence Stroll has systematically upgraded not only the team’s facilities, but its ambition too, each disappointment along the way met with an increase in the stakes.

Inside the F1 factory that wooed Newey

Read more

It could look like a gambler who keeps doubling up, knowing that eventually the numbers will fall in his favour. But that would imply an element of chance that is far removed from who Stroll is, someone who always prevails. It’s as if each disappointment, each failure to break into the winner’s circle, has pulled him deeper into the mystery of finding that elusive formula but in the full knowledge that he will find it - by overwhelming force if need be. As each limitation has challenged him, so he’s responded with yet more funding and re-imagining of scale. 

Rescuing the little Force India team and loosening the purse strings to allow it the car development funds it had so sorely needed. Re-equipping the place, buying the adjacent land for a factory expansion. The shortcut to competitiveness represented by the ‘Pink Mercedes’ of 2020 – a straight copy of the 2019 title winner – and the close relationship with the works Mercedes team he established through his friendship with Toto Wolff. The rebranding of the team as Aston Martin, Lawrence also having bought the automotive brand carrying that revered name. The recruitment of four-time champion Sebastian Vettel to replace the lower-profile long-termer Sergio Perez. Vettel’s replacement by Fernando Alonso.

All these things created a stir within the sometimes conservative world of F1. The establishment hadn’t seen this sort of bold, naked, commitment, bulldozering aside any of the conventional constraints – not since Red Bull had burst onto the scene a decade-and-a-half earlier.

This constant re-imagining of scale is actually quite a similar process to that employed by the late Red Bull chief Dietrich Mateschitz. The other parallel, of course, is how that has attracted Newey. Let Adrian off the leash, give him the sort of free-wheeling environment he needs, and his creative talent will do the rest.

It always happens that way eventually, regardless of team. Williams, McLaren and Red Bull all ended up with the most aerodynamically advanced cars on the grid under his watch, often rooted in innovations triggered by a new regulation set. 

He works best when the structure is in place to allow him to focus solely on the car. Creating that structure within the fantastic new facility is precisely what Cowell has been doing for the last three months, all in readiness for Newey’s arrival. Cowell is unique in his combination of engineering brilliance and team leadership. His competitiveness is as fierce as Newey’s, with a personality which inspires people to buy into his vision, relaxed and pleasant but doggedly determined – and very clever.

Referring to his previous roles, Cowell said in Austin last year, “The thing that I hated was wasting time, so if, as an organisation, it wasn’t efficient, that made me grumpy.

“So I’ve used that approach with some other industries and some other topics. I guess that’s what I’m going to try and do for Aston Martin as well, to look at our efficiency.

“The organisation, how do we get it so that the 900 people at Silverstone are organised well, so that their day is efficient? It makes me grumpy if there’s an overlap of responsibility, it makes me grumpier still if there’s a gap and there’s a lack of communication.

“How do we get 900 people to work efficiently, so it’s like one brain? Writing reports and having meetings, I’m not too keen on that sort of thing.”

Reporting to Cowell (above) will be much the same group of people who created the disappointing AMR24 (but with the addition of new Chief Technical Officer Enrico Cardile). There’s nothing damning about that. It’s always about being on the right path and identifying when and why you are on the wrong one, something that both Newey and Cowell are so good at. The group will follow that leadership.

How Cowell has already shown he'll take no prisoners

Read more

The same group of engineers who created the disastrous Honda R107 and R108s created for 2009 the world-beating Brawn GP1. Aston already has a very able bunch of engineers at these department head levels, invariably with a great record of success at other teams: aero chief Ian Grieg and deputy tech director Eric Blandin were both intimately involved in a series of blockbusting Mercedes and there is ample talent in the layers beneath. It’s just waiting to be directed and inspired.  

All very well, you may say. But isn’t it going to be an engine formula from ’26? Honda. With whom Newey already has a great relationship. Oh, and a team principal and CEO who is recognised as one of the greatest engine designers in the sport’s history. The Honda engine is not his remit, of course. But as a partner, it’s surely won’t hurt to have such a brain on hand with which to discuss problems and who can talk their technical language in such detail when discussing what the car needs. 

Of course nothing is written in the stars in a sport as complex as F1. And neither Aston nor Honda can control how well Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull etc adapt to the new regulations. But those regulations represent a re-set for everyone. If you were Verstappen trying to decide your future, might a move a few miles northward from Milton Keynes to Silverstone not look hugely appealing? How formidable would that partnership look?