The Aston Martin Formula One team has signed star designer Adrian Newey in a move billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll hopes will turn it into a championship contender.
Newey, who has helped Red Bull Racing to several world titles, will take on his new role as managing technical partner of Aston Martin F1 in March, the outfit said Tuesday.
The BBC reported Newey’s contract to be worth as much as GBP30 million ($51.26 million) a year. Aston Martin declined to comment on the size of the deal.
The appointment puts an end to days of intense speculation that Aston Martin would hire Newey, who many view as the sport’s top designer. The 65-year-old has won 12 drivers’ championships, including seven at Red Bull, where he created the dominant car that has helped Max Verstappen to three straight titles.
Aston Martin, whose drivers include two-time champion Fernando Alonso, is struggling to compete this season and is currently fifth in the constructors’ standings. But a reset of the regulations for 2026 is set to reshape the grid.
Stroll confirmed in an interview last week with Bloomberg Television that he was pulling out all the stops to sign Newey. “Adrian is clearly the most talented and gifted individual in Formula One based on his track record and history,” he said.
See also: Interra Resources granted 12-month extension to meet SGX watch-list exit requirements
The Canadian billionaire is close to offloading another minority stake in the team to venture capital firm Accel Partners and private credit manager HPS Investment Partners, Sky News reported at the weekend. It follows a Bloomberg report in April that said Stroll was mulling selling another chunk of the F1 team to cash in on the hype around the sport.
It would be the second time Stroll has sold shares in the team following a deal with US private equity firm Arctos Partners last year. Stroll controls the F1 team, which is separate to the listed luxury carmaker Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings that he rescued in 2020.
The sport has attracted a wave of new investors in recent years, thanks to a concerted push to grow the audience by owner Liberty Media Group, alongside the success of the Netflix series Drive to Survive.