It's becoming more apparent by the day that Adrian Newey might soon be donning Aston Martin's green in the Formula 1 paddock.
Initially, it seemed Red Bull's departing technical mastermind was headed to Ferrari, but it appears that the Maranello team hesitated at Newey's insistence on having significant control.
During a discussion at Zandvoort, when asked if the cohesion within the team at Ferrari was prioritised over bringing in a 'genius', team principal Frederic Vasseur told Marca, "Yes, the group counts more than the genius. I have always said that. This applies to engineers, drivers, and anyone," the Frenchman affirmed.
"PSG has always chosen the best, but has never won the Champions League," he added, drawing an analogy with the football team Paris Saint-Germain, "However, we are on the right track."
Meanwhile, there are mounting whispers that Newey, aged 65, has inked a lucrative agreement with Aston Martin, though details are supposedly kept confidential until early 2025.
At Zandvoort, when a DAZN reporter playfully inquired if he had visited Newey's purported new office, Aston Martin brand ambassador Pedro de la Rosa responded with a chuckle, "If you know something, tell me, because it seems that you are better informed than I am."
Contrasting sharply with Vasseur's perspective, Aston Martin team chief Mike Krack expressed on Friday that a technical 'genius' like Newey could be a good fit. "It's not like you have to make huge changes," he noted.
"I think there was a time where there was a team that had seven technical directors, so I think we are very far from that. I think someone like that, you have to make any kind of effort to integrate and adjust your structure to get the best out of it," Krack elaborated.
