Adrian Newey to snub Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari and pen Aston Martin F1 deal

Adrian Newey is set to sign a mega-money contract with Aston Martin after choosing to ignore Lewis Hamilton’s pleas for him to make the move to Ferrari.

Newey is one of the most celebrated Formula 1 car designer ever and has been the brains behind every title-winning machine Red Bull have ever put on a race track. But it was confirmed in early May that the 65-year-old had decided to leave.

In the months since, speculation has been rife over where he might turn up next. The early favourites were Ferrari and Hamilton, who is joining the Italian team in January, made it clear he wanted Newey to join him at Maranello.

But though it is understood that Ferrari were one of several teams who toyed with the idea of bringing him on board, it is Aston Martin that are on the verge of landing their man. Newey has agreed to join the Silverstone-based squad having also rejected the advances of his former employers McLaren and Williams.

As reported by the Daily Mail, Newey is this week expected to put pen to paper on a deal thought to be worth in the region of £20million per year. Billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll is happy to pay the big bucks to land a man he believes can help Aston Martin achieve the goal of challenging for and winning F1 titles.

Months ago, Newey agreed with Red Bull not to make his plans for the future public until at least September. Having honoured that commitment, the 65-year-old is now free to announce what he likes, though with the contract not yet officially signed confirmation is not likely before next week.

But it is Fernando Alonso who Newey will be designing cars for, along with Lance Stroll, rather than Hamilton despite the seven-time F1 champion’s public declaration that he would love to work with him. Along with the Briton, Newey last year named Alonso as the other driver he regretted having never worked with.

“Working with Fernando and Lewis would have been fabulous… but it never happened,” he said. But he will change that as soon as his signature hits the contract offer from Aston Martin.

Not that he will be able to get to work straight away. Red Bull’s announcement of his exit was not specific about his leaving date, simply stating that Newey would depart “early next year”. But he has not been involved in day-to-day operations for some time now and has instead been focused on seeing through his RB17 Hypercar project.

Once his work is done, Newey will serve a period of gardening leave agreed with Red Bull and then join his new employer next year. It means the first car Aston Martin will put on track that has had some degree of Newey’s influence will be their 2026 challenger.