Adrian Newey to Aston Martin slip-up as Fernando Alonso game goes wrong

Adrian Newey has spoken of his desire to work with Fernando Alonso in the past, but it has not happened yet.

Aston Martin ambassador Pedro de la Rosa may have just given it away to Fernando Alonso that Formula 1 design guru Adrian Newey will join the team.

Newey has established himself as one of the greatest F1 designers of all-time with 25 titles claimed through his designs, though all of that experience is set to come up for grabs with his Red Bull departure confirmed. Currently seeing out his Red Bull tenure working on the RB17 hypercar, Newey will become a free agent early in 2025.

Adrian Newey heading for Aston Martin?

Speculation has been rife over Newey’s future. If he does decide to return to Formula 1, which team would it be with? Ferrari started out as the most likely destination, but now Aston Martin has seemingly emerged as the favourite, with a report from respected Italian publication Autosprint claiming Newey is heading for Aston Martin as part of a deal worth $100 million.

And as Aston Martin ambassador de la Rosa and driver Alonso went head-to-head in DAZN’s ‘The TABÚ’ game, de la Rosa potentially offered some major insight, accidentally, into what the future holds for Newey.

“He’s someone you’re going to li…” At that point, de la Rosa noticed his mistake, then continuing to Alonso: “You’d like him a lot!”

At that point, both Spaniards began laughing, with Alonso replying “Newey” to de la Rosa as his guess for the person he was talking about.

“Yes! We are going to end this game very quickly,” de la Rosa responded as the duo began laughing again.

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De la Rosa has experience of working alongside Newey at McLaren, where de la Rosa was their long-serving test driver, also contesting nine races for the team between 2003-11.

And de la Rosa would describe Newey as always being “one step ahead”, explaining how he would note down driver feedback and then go to the windtunnel in search of solutions. De la Rosa would explain his point in a way that made Newey sound to still be on the market.

“Adrian Newey has got it all,” said de la Rosa.

“What surprised me the most when I worked with him, it’s how much he asks the drivers and how much he listens to them. When a driver tells him something he writes it down and he goes to work on it in the windtunnel. That’s Adrian Newey. Always one step ahead.

“The advantage of being Adrian Newey is that he can choose his future, where he wants to go and even his salary.”

Aston Martin currently sit P5 in the F1 2024 Constructors’ Championship standings, Alonso scoring their best result of the season so far with P5 in Saudi Arabia.

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