Adrian Newey is stepping onto the Monaco Grand Prix circuit with a milestone: attending his first race with Aston Martin. The F1 design legend brings along his renowned notebook, a staple in his repertoire.
Newey’s notebook is no ordinary stationery; it’s a treasure trove of “scraps of A4 paper” filled with “sketches, ideas, and prompts,” he revealed. It serves as an extension of his thought process, capturing fleeting inspirations in a tangible form. However, Newey jokes that much of its content is “unintelligible,” even to himself at times.
With an impressive track record of contributing to 26 F1 World Championship victories, Newey is not resting on his laurels. As Aston Martin’s managing technical partner, he is charged with the task of steering the team through the new chassis and engine regulations looming in 2026. Unique in his approach, Newey sticks to a traditional route by preferring a drawing board over modern CAD systems.
For Newey, drawing by hand is like “speaking a first language.” Despite the advancements in parametric modeling, he finds the tactile aspect of drawing allows him to fully immerse himself in his designs. “If I have a drawing on the drawing board, with 100 lines on it, I’ve probably drawn 200 lines to get to that point and rubbed a hundred out,” he elaborated, underscoring the iterative nature of his creative process.
Newey acknowledges the potential inefficiencies of his old-school approach, noting that his drawings often need translation into digital form, a task handled by a team of capable colleagues. Still, this hands-on method is integral to how he incubates and develops complex ideas, even if it means maintaining an atypical workflow in a modern F1 team.
Newey has been with Aston Martin since March, working diligently on adapting to the F1 2026 rulebook. As he prepares for a fresh chapter with their new Honda engine, this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix marks his anticipated trackside debut with the team. On his choice of debut venue, Newey points out the tight deadlines in contemporary F1, which have focused his efforts off the track until now.
Adrian Newey’s return to the track—armed with his beloved notebook—ushers in a new era with Aston Martin, promising innovation and strategic design in the face of upcoming F1 challenges.
