Aston Martin is ready to welcome Jonathan Wheatley as workforce principal, with the information that Adrian Newey is to step down from the function.
Autosport reported earlier on Thursday that the British technical guru, who had stepped in to switch Andy Cowell solely initially of the season, can be handing over the reins to return to his unique designation throughout the Silverstone-based outfit.
It implies that Aston Martin can have a fifth workforce principal since becoming a member of the F1 grid in 2021, so who have been the primary 4?
Otmar Szafnauer – 2021
Otmar Szafnauer, former F1 workforce principal
Photograph by: Andreas Beil
Otmar Szafnauer had led the workforce via a number of transitions – from its former Drive India guise into the Racing Level period after Lawrence Stroll stepped in to avoid wasting the beleaguered outfit.
When the Aston Martin moniker was launched for 2021, Szafnauer remained in place, although his tenure would solely final the one season within the British producer’s trademark inexperienced colors.
Early in January 2022, it was introduced that Szafnauer would depart, information that was removed from surprising after the hiring of former McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh 4 months prior as CEO.
The Romanian-American left after guiding the workforce to a seventh-place end within the 2021 constructors’ standings, with Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll twelfth and thirteenth within the drivers’ desk.
Szafnauer in the end moved to Alpine for a failed tenure.
Mike Krack – 2022-2024
Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer of the Aston Martin F1 Staff
Photograph by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Pictures by way of Getty Pictures
Former BMW motorsport chief Mike Krack was the person chosen to switch Szafnauer forward of the 2022 marketing campaign.
The Luxembourger was recruited with heavy curiosity from Whitmarsh, who on the time stated: “Mike Krack is strictly the correct of dynamic and trendy workforce principal.
“Having labored in very senior motorsport positions at each BMW and Porsche, backed by an engineering background in Formulation 1 with Sauber, Mike possesses a mix of expertise and experience that makes him the perfect selection for us.”
Krack was a part of a serious recruitment drive as Stroll Sr started to construct what he hoped – and nonetheless does – would turn into an F1 powerhouse, becoming a member of at roughly the identical time as the brand new technical director Dan Fallows from Pink Bull.
He led the workforce via additional upscaling as a brand new state-of-the-art technical campus was created at its Silverstone base, with promise proven on-track in 2023 as Fernando Alonso particularly threatened to hassle the normal prime three groups.
A primary win went begging on the Monaco Grand Prix however after that, regression set in, although it completed the 2024 marketing campaign fifth within the constructors’ standings.
However after three years as workforce principal, Krack was moved apart, although he stays on the workforce as chief trackside officer.
Andy Cowell – 2025
Andy Cowell, Aston Martin Racing
Photograph by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Pictures by way of Getty Pictures
Former Mercedes energy unit guru Cowell joined Aston 5 months earlier than taking up from Krack within the workforce’s subsequent managerial shake-up, alongside his unique function of chief govt officer.
On the time Cowell described the adjustments as “a pure evolution of the multi-year plans that we now have scheduled to make and I am extremely excited in regards to the future”, although he in the end remained in that place for only one season.
Aston revealed in November 2025 that Cowell can be moved apart and into a brand new function overseeing the brand new partnership with energy unit producer Honda, making means for Newey to turn into workforce principal for the primary time in his profession.
Below Cowell, the squad completed seventh within the constructors’ standings with a greatest results of fifth on the Hungarian Grand Prix – the automotive struggling to be aggressive with extreme drag.
Adrian Newey – 2026
Adrian Newey, Aston Martin Racing
Photograph by: Kym Illman / Getty Pictures
Newey’s stint as workforce principal could have been succinct, however by no means has it been uneventful.
Aston’s begin to life beneath F1’s new regulatory period has been nightmarish – the Honda energy unit but unable to complete a grand prix distance.
Newey supplied a unprecedented media briefing on the season-opening Australian Grand Prix to disclose simply how far behind the brand new partnership was, with a scarcity of spare batteries, vibrations that trigger well being considerations for the drivers and the truth that the workforce had solely been made conscious of the dispersal of employees from the Japanese producer’s earlier F1 stint with Pink Bull in November.
A step again to a technical function will permit Newey to do what he’s greatest at, although it means extra upheaval for the squad because it fights to succeed in the highest of the F1 mountain and fulfil the goals of proprietor Stroll’s funding.
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