John Watson has criticised Aston Martin’s decision to appoint Adrian Newey as team principal, describing the move as a “mistake” after the team’s miserable start to the 2026 Formula 1 season.
Less than a year after his shock move from Red Bull to Aston Martin, Newey was promoted to team principal during the winter of 2025, replacing former Mercedes engine chief Andy Cowell.
The appointment immediately raised eyebrows. Newey is widely regarded as one of the greatest designers in Formula 1 history, but the 66-year-old has spent much of his career operating away from the public glare rather than leading a team from the front in a traditional principal role.
His first season in charge has quickly become a nightmare. The striking AMR26 was late to the Barcelona shakedown, then suffered reliability problems during testing in Bahrain, while violent vibrations from the Honda power unit left Aston Martin badly behind the leading teams before the season had even begun.
By the time F1 reached Melbourne for the opening race, Newey had already revealed the scale of the team’s problems, including concerns over spare parts and the level of inexperience at Honda’s engine facility in Sakura.
Since then, Aston Martin have scored just one point and sit 10th in the Constructors’ Championship, ahead only of new team Cadillac.
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Watson questions Newey appointment
Speaking exclusively to Total-Motorsport.com, Watson said he didn’t understand why Aston Martin chose to move Newey into the team principal position.
“Yeah, I don’t know why it was done; I think that was a mistake,” Watson said when asked by Total-Motorsport.com whether appointing Newey as team principal was an error. “I think Adrian’s skills are very much in the aero world.
“I mean, he has had many, many people who have worked with him. He doesn’t design the car from one end to the other. The concept is his, and the detail is his, but for the other parts of the car, there are many other fine engineers and people who worked at Red Bull who were responsible for the car’s performance.
“But certainly giving him that additional responsibility, I think, was an error. And I never understood why it was proposed in the first instance.”
The criticism goes to the heart of Aston Martin’s gamble. Newey’s record as a technical leader is extraordinary, but the team principal role demands a different skill set, from political management and media leadership to race-team accountability and long-term operational control.
That pressure has only increased because Newey has been present at just two races so far this season, leaving Mike Krack and Pedro de la Rosa to face much of the external scrutiny around Aston Martin’s collapse.
Aston Martin’s brutal 2026 reality
The scale of the downturn has been particularly painful given the investment made by team owner Lawrence Stroll since rescuing Force India from administration in 2018.
Stroll has spent years trying to build Aston Martin into a title-contending operation, with the team’s state-of-the-art Silverstone factory opening in 2023 and major names such as Newey and former Ferrari technical director Enrico Cardile brought in to strengthen the project.
The team’s peak came in 2023, when Fernando Alonso joined from Alpine and scored eight podiums in a resurgent campaign. At the time, the Spaniard appeared close to ending his long wait for another Grand Prix win.
Those days now feel distant. Aston Martin have been off the pace throughout 2026, and Alonso’s frustration has become increasingly visible as reliability, performance and engine concerns continue to define their season.
Watson said he had sympathy for Stroll, even as the team’s ambitious project continues to fall short of its targets.
“My heart bleeds for Lawrence Stroll because the man has put his heart and soul into everything to give that brand the best opportunity to be a world championship challenger,” Watson said.
“They’ve got probably the finest facility up at Silverstone. They meant to have the finest aero apartment in Formula 1. And you’re getting complaints from Fernando; obviously, Lance doesn’t complain too loudly; he might do it privately, but doesn’t do it too loudly.
“But Fernando was pretty outspoken about what he feels, both the performance of the car and the performance of the engine, and it’s just dire. And I don’t understand why.
“I suppose you can say maybe the 26 car is the legacy of the former design group. So that was in place at the point when Adrian was joining the company. And it’s quite difficult to put a stop to that and say, ‘right, I don’t like any of that, we’re going to start again’.
“Because the lead times for all these evolutions are very long. So the first true Newey car probably won’t be until 27. There are some improvements that can be made in the 26 car. It’s too complicated to try to integrate Newey into the 26 car to give you a car that would be representative of what Adrian Newey’s achieved over his design career.”
First true Newey Aston Martin may come in 2027
That timeline may be the only comfort for Aston Martin. If the AMR26 is still largely a product of the previous technical structure, then the first car that can truly be judged as a Newey project may not arrive until 2027.
But that does not fully answer the leadership question. Watson’s criticism is not that Newey lacks technical genius, but that Aston Martin may have weakened the value of that genius by giving him a role that takes him away from the area where he has historically been most effective.
The immediate problem is that Aston Martin need answers now. They are bottom of the established teams, Alonso is increasingly frustrated, Lance Stroll has also been unable to lift the car into contention, and the team’s huge investment is producing almost no reward on track.
There may still be a longer-term argument for patience. Newey’s influence could yet shape a stronger 2027 car, and Aston Martin’s facilities should eventually give the team the platform to compete at a higher level.
But in 2026, the experiment has made a brutal start. And Watson’s verdict is clear that appointing Newey as team principal was a step too far.
