Forget the effect of McLaren’s double disqualification in Las Vegas on the three-way battle for the drivers’ championship. Adrian Newey’s appointment as team principal of Aston Martin F1 was the hot topic on opening day in the Losail paddock.
This may indeed have been the point: rumours that Andy Cowell was to be removed from his position as CEO and team principal had been gathering pace, since it was known that owner Lawrence Stroll was agitating for change and had been talking to potential replacements. But if the intention of making Cowell’s change of circumstances official was to bring such intrigue to a halt, it has not had the desired effect.
There has been some surprise: according to many insiders, both the timing and the nature of the move was unexpected. Others, however, claim that Newey has long nurtured the dream of being at the helm of a Formula 1 team, since having oversight of operational matters would militate against repeats of historical instances where his office has signed off the best cars, only for them to fail to claim the drivers’ or constructors’ championships – or both.
Some even say Newey accepted the new role solely to increase his autonomy within his sphere of activity.
And suspicion persists that the leadership structure announced this week was dictated mostly by a desire to quash the rumours about Cowell’s future, which emerged during the Las Vegas weekend. That rumour was made official alongside Newey’s appointment – an announcement calculated to sweep away any further speculation, starting with the sensational talk that former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was in the frame for a role.
Horner is known to have contacted the majority of F1’s team owners, including Stroll, over the summer with regards to positions within their organisations. In Singapore, Cowell spent the majority of his pre-event press briefing parrying questions about Horner’s potential arrival, to the extent that the conference took on an almost surreal turn.
Given the team’s under-performance this season with an uncompetitive car, as well as operational misfires and some questionable race strategies, plus Newey’s track record of being ruthless with personnel who do not align with his intense quest for perfection, more change was almost inevitable. It’s understood that one of the fault lines that developed between the managing technical partner and the CEO/team principal was Cowell’s unwillingness to swing the axe in the technical department to the degree Newey wished.
In this scenario, the person from whose drawing board sprung cars that won 12 drivers’ championships and 13 constructors’ titles held greater political clout with the ultimate boss.
There are, however, important questions regarding the bandwidth Newey will require in his new role. It is difficult to believe he could guarantee a presence at more than ten grands prix, a number that already seems high by his recent patterns.
It is just as hard to imagine Newey fully committed to gladhanding media and sponsors – two duties that fall to the team principal. To take just one example, while the paddock was still digesting the Aston Martin news on Thursday in Qatar, Williams team principal James Vowles was hosting a convivial lunch for VIPs from a team sponsor.
Hence the suspicion that the latest Aston Martin structure may be temporary, perhaps to be evaluated in practice while waiting to assess the availability of high-profile figures on the market. It is understood that at least one of the outside candidates previously connected with the team principal role is still engaged in some form of discussions with Stroll and Newey.
This is not Horner, despite reports that he was given a clandestine tour of the Aston Martin factory by Newey this week. The former Red Bull boss is understood to be biding his time for next year, when many more vacancies at executive level are likely to ensue at teams that conspicuously fail to build competitive cars for the new technical regulations.
Indeed, Mike Krack is far from out of the picture. Since the beginning of the year, the Luxembourgish engineer has officially held the role of chief trackside officer, having been shorn of his team principal role in a restructure orchestrated by Cowell.
Krack is present at every race and already handles some of the tasks normally assigned to a team principal. It is very likely that on race weekends when Newey is not present, Krack will discharge the team principal’s trackside duties.
All of this, of course, while waiting to see whether the leadership framework announced yesterday by Aston Martin will truly be final – or if more surprises are on the way.
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