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October 26, 2024 · 5:23 pm

F1 driving guidelines to be debated in Qatar meeting

Drivers have been invited to discuss driving guidelines

Formula 1 driving guidelines will be one of the main topics set be be debated in a meeting about regulations scheduled for the Qatar GP weekend.

Drivers have been invited to join FIA representatives for a discussion on how things could be done better.

Qatar was chosen in essence because it’s a much quieter weekend with a more favourable schedule than the Las Vegas event that precedes it.

Such meetings are not unusual and have become a regular occurrence, but the ongoing debate over the penalties handed out in Austin last weekend has put a spotlight on the driving guidelines.

The matter was discussed at length in Friday’s driving briefing in Mexico, in what sources describe as cordial and constructive atmosphere.

The drivers generally agree that penalties have been consistent, but they still want more clarity.

It was also widely accepted that at present the guidelines favour the defending driver, and that is likely to be part of the future discussion.

The guidelines are acknowledged by the FIA to be a work-in-progress and thus are open to change.

There is also a discussion about having them added to the FIA’s International Sporting Code for 2025, which will put a premium on honing them in the coming weeks. They would be added to Appendix L, which covers driver conduct, and already has a section for “overtaking, car control and track limits.”

It was also pointed out in the meeting that the DRS zone in Austin had been cut by 95 metres. That and a generally smaller DRS effect across the field as teams find more downforce from floors made it that much harder for drivers to launch a pass into Turn 12, and in turn led to incidents.

The subject of gravel traps was also discussed, with many drivers keen to see the sort of solution seen in Austria. COTA is looking into it, although drainage issues at the venue mean digging pits for gravel it’s not an easy answer.

Carlos Sainz is one of many drivers who wants to see such changes.

“I think we can keep going about guidelines, but for me until circuits don’t give us also a hand, it will be very difficult to erase the problem,” the Ferrari driver said on Thursday.

“I think if you put a gravel trap at the exit of Turn 12, Lando doesn’t think about braking so late and releasing the brake and happy to overtake around the outside, because he would lose two seconds and get dirt on the tyres by going around the outside.

“And Max would think twice about braking so late, risking going in the gravel himself. So if you think about it, this solution might be solved by itself, by circuit standards or circuit modifications, and we keep going around in circles with the guidelines that might be easier to be solved with certain slight changes to a track which some tracks have already performed.”

Regarding Friday’s meeting an FIA spokesperson said: “There was a general commitment to continue to update the driving standards guidelines. Bearing in mind the drivers requested the drivers’ racing guidelines and agreed to their introduction along with the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, each time they are updated it is consultation with the drivers.

“It is generally accepted that they should continue to evolve, not because of isolated incidents such as Austin, but driven by the desire to bring consistency to determinations and decisions from the stewards.”

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October 21, 2024 · 3:25 pm

Wolff questions “outrageous” Red Bull ride height adjustment controversy

Wolff isn’t smiling about the Red Bull ride height saga…

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has called the situation surrounding the controversial Red Bull ride height adjustment device “outrageous” – and questioned why it was needed on the car.

The FIA’s Nikolas Tombazis has made it clear that the matter is closed and that no sanctions will be taken against Red Bull.

In Austin TV cameras caught a Red Bull mechanic demonstrating to the FIA that a large and very obvious tool was required to change the settings on the device, and Wolff suggested that it was used for theatrical effect.

“My view is from the distance of what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard. It’s outrageous,” he said. “I really like that when they put this real ‘broom’ in the car to demonstrate how that is only way of that getting changed. I wonder how long it took them to make this, and to stick it in there?

“And I didn’t know that in F1 we were using such devices. It’s not good enough to say ‘You know, that’s it. Promise I’m not going to do it again.’

“Why would you design such a thing, and put two marks on it for two positions? Is that the precise decision making in F1?”

Asked to expand on his “outrageous” comment he questioned how long it took for the device to be spotted.

“I think we’re all designing parts that are F1 standard, that are to the highest specifications,” he said. “We’re designing parts that are within the regulations. Sometimes on things like aero elasticity, you would probably try to go as far as you can.

“But there are certain parts which you would question why they exist. They [the FIA] haven’t just seen it for a long time when they should have.”

Regarding the FIA’s position he said: “I cannot speak for the FIA at all. I cannot speak for Nikolas. Obviously that’s something that’s been not spotted for a long time.”

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October 19, 2024 · 2:40 pm

Final W15 update gives Mercedes a boost in Austin

The final W15 update package appeared to work well in Austin on Friday

The final update package for the Mercedes W15 appeared to give the Brackley F1 team a boost in Austin when George Russell qualified second for the sprint, despite setting his time early and leaving himself vulnerable to being beaten.

Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton was caught out by a yellow flag and slipped down to P7, having been second and third in the earlier sessions.

The Austin updates are focussed on the floor, which has been a major talking point for Mercedes after the last version as introduced at Spa was dropped and then swapped on and off the car in subsequent races.

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said that the latest iteration was developed from the Spa floor.

“It’s not a sort of fundamentally different concept,” he said. “It’s an evolution of that floor from Spa. It’s not the only change on the car. Hopefully, it’ll be a big enough step that the performance will be obvious.

“We’ve done all the work that we can to be confident that this will be a step forward. Running it and seeing that you get the results you expect in terms of the pressures and the loads, seeing that you make a step forward on the timesheets.

“That’s all part of the box ticking exercise. But to get us to this point, we’ve done as much work as we possibly can to confirm that it should, it should be okay. And yeah, we’ll learn this weekend, and we’ll continue to learn into Mexico.”

Asked by this writer if there is anything else to come he said: “We’ve brought pretty much everything we’re going to bring to the end of the year now.

“That’s not to say that in and amongst the learning that you get across the races, we won’t be making further changes, but there’s no major updates planned for us from here on in.”

Shovlin admitted that the Spa floor hadn’t brought much performance, and the timing of introduction was influenced by the fact that the team needed to replace the previous examples, which had done a lot of miles. So a switch was made to a new spec despite it not brining a significant advantage.

“Before the break, we had a really good momentum, and we’d hope to carry that into the second part of the year,” he said. “Other teams were bringing updates this side of the break, and I think that inevitably had a bit of an effect on us slipping back.

“We’ve done a lot of work looking at that Spa package now, and it wasn’t a big step. Part of the reason we did that was because the floors that we’d introduced in Miami, by that time, were getting very tired. We wanted to make new floors.

“We didn’t have a lot of performance, so we actually went ahead and produced them for what was a relatively small gain.

“The downside of that is it’s hard to know whether you’re making progress. And for one reason or another, we didn’t have great performance in Zandvoort, in Monza, and that was what triggered the decision to roll back. But if we look at it, I think a large bit was our competitors moving ahead of us again.

“When we were quick before the break, we won some races, but we were winning them by the narrowest of margins. We wouldn’t have even said we were the fastest car in Spa. And hopefully this, this will move us back in the right direction. But you’ll see McLaren have got an update here again, so I think they’re the ones that everyone is chasing at the moment.”

Shovlin acknowledged that slow corner performance has been a handicap recently.

“We’re struggling to turn the car in some of those corners, and then that results in the drivers having to sort of finish turning it with the throttle,” he said. “That puts up tyre temperatures.

“So we’re working on those aspects for next year. But this is just more downforce and more downforce tends to make your problems go away, but, you know, there’ll still be things we need to fix.”

Regarding the latest updates he said: “It should help a bit. But that’s the thing that we’re really looking at in the development of the next year’s car is, how can we improve the balance.

“Throughout the life of this car, we found that when it’s in it, in its well-balanced window, it’s a pretty effective racing car, and when you slip out of it, we lose a fair bit of performance.

“And if you look at the McLaren, it seems, wherever they go, whatever the session, they nearly always have it working well. And that’s what you’ve got to aim for.”

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October 18, 2024 · 8:33 pm

Brown: Red Bull could be guilty of “massive breach” with ride height device

RBR says it hasn’t changed ride heights under parc ferme

McLaren boss Zak Brown has suggested that Red Bull Racing could be guilty of a “massive breach” of the FIA regulations if it is found to have changed the ride height of its cars under parc ferme conditions.

The Milton Keynes team had admitted that it has a device in the cockpit that can be used by mechanics to adjust ride height, but the team insists that it hasn’t been used and wouldn’t work when the car is fully built.

The FIA intends to put a seal on it as a short term measure, while the team has agreed to modify the car. However McLaren and other teams still have questions.

“Typically, being able to run a car lower is a competitive advantage that makes the car quicker most of the time,” said Brown. “The FIA I think have done a very good job of identifying an element on a single race team.

“From what we can see from having looked at all the open source components, it’s the only team that has the ability to adjust the ride height from inside the cockpit.

“Whether they have or haven’t, I have no idea, but having the ability to do it raises questions. It’s very clear in the regulations, and it’s a material breach, that if you modify your race car, anything that you didn’t get permission on or driver comfort goes very much against regulations.

“So they’ve decided, from what I’ve read, to put a seal on it. And at the same time, we’ve heard from the team that you can’t adjust it when the car is fully race prepped. The car’s not always fully race prepped, in parc ferme on Sunday morning.

“So I think that needs to be unpicked. Why do you need to put a seal on something that you can’t get to in parc ferme or post part ferme a conditions. I still have questions that I need to better understand.”

He added: “If, and I say if, because I don’t know, it’s used in an inappropriate manner, then it is definitely a performance advantage.

“If it’s not, then there’s no performance advantage whatsoever. And I think that’s what we just want to better understand.”

Asked how serious the issue could be if the device was used under parc ferme conditions he said: “I think if you breach the parc ferme rules, that’s a massive breach. And so there should be consequences if that has happened, and that would be ultimately up to the FIA. We’ve seen it in sport before. We’ve seen in our sport, we’ve seen in baseball, we’ve seen in football.

“These things do happen, so we just put our trust in the FIA to address the issue. Moving forward, we’re just asking questions, but it’s up to the FIA, as our regulator, they do a great job to get on top of it and come up with a solution that is transparent and it’s satisfactory to all the teams. I think I’m not alone in our concerns for what we’re have seen and heard.”

Brown stressed that his main concern was how long RBR has had the device on its cars, thus potentially the ability to use it.

“I’ve got confidence that the FIA will resolve the issue,” he said. “I understand they’re having to modify and change their racing car for upcoming races.

“I’m not exactly sure when, so I’m confident in the FIA’s ability to address it moving forward, and our questions are a bit more around what has, maybe historically happened and understanding if it’s been used in an inappropriate manner.”

He added: “As long as the device has had the ability to be adjusted from inside the cockpit, I think is probably what needs to be reviewed.”

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October 17, 2024 · 2:44 pm

Crawford set for first run in Aston Martin AMR24 in Abu Dhabi test

Crawford will drive the AMR24 in Abu Dhabi

Aston Martin Formula 1 development driver Jak Crawford is to drive the AMR24 for the first time in the Abu Dhabi young driver test.

The American’s deal with the team has always included the end-of-season running, but matters were complicated by discussions over the addition of a rookie sprint event, with the team’s longtime reserve Felipe Drugovich the obvious candidate to do the race.

There was even a suggestion that they would split the day, with Crawford testing and Drugovich doing the qualifying session and sprint, although it’s understood that the FIA wanted to have the same driver stay in the car.

However in the end the sprint was abandoned, leaving the team to run Crawford for the full day as planned.

Crawford, who is currently lying fifth in the FIA F2 championship, has already had some TPC running in the AMR22 in Austria.

“I’ve spent lots of hours on the simulator back at the AMR Technology Campus, and I will be continuing this ahead of the test to make sure I am well prepared,” said Crawford.

“Yas Marina is a circuit I know well, so hopefully this will help me get up to speed quickly. I would like to say a big thanks to everyone at Aston Martin Aramco for the chance to drive this year’s car in the test.” 

Team boss Mike Krack said of Crawford: “He’s already shown a high level of understanding in previous tests with us this year and I know he will be working hard in preparation for the test alongside competing in the final two rounds of the F2 Championship.”

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September 21, 2024 · 7:46 am

How new Ferrari SF-24 front wing helps balance at high downforce tracks

The front flap revisions will help to balance the SF-24

A front wing upgrade introduced on the Ferrari SF-24 at the Singapore GP will help to find a balance at higher downforce levels.

The third and fourth wing elements have been modified, with the Italian team’s official FIA presentation submission saying that the update was not specific to the Singapore circuit and “offers performance and downstream flow features improvements over a wider polar range.”

Ferrari’s Jock Clear says that the change will enable the team to add front downforce when needed at a track where the rear wing runs to the maximum, effectively providing a wider range of options.

“Obviously is Singapore not the obvious circuit where you would bring an aero upgrade,” he said.

“It’s a sort of very draggy, high downforce circuit. Basically it’s just moving the energy a little bit inboard. So if you look at it closely, you’ll see that the inboard is a bit more aggressive, and the outboard is a bit less aggressive.

“So you’ve moved that dynamic a bit. It allows us to actually crank on a bit more, which here, you’re probably going to want, because you’ve got maximum rear downforce, and you’re going to want to get a balance.

“And balance is everything around here. And we’ve been a little bit backed into a corner at some of the high downforce circuits before, because we’re running out of front power, basically.

“So it’s just a little bit more powerful at the top end, slightly more efficient, marginally. But it’s the fact that it’s a little bit more powerful at the top end that gives us a bit more scope.”

Ferrari has shown good form in recent races following a blip when a new floor introduced in Spain didn’t work as planned.

Asked if the team is now confident that it is back on track Clear said: “You’re never fully confident. I think it’s a good picture on how the ebb and flow of everybody’s development goes.

“Because actually you were probably asking the same questions to McLaren a year ago, or to Mercedes four months ago, or to Red Bull now. Have you lost your way? And certainly, after, after Spain, we didn’t feel we’d lost our way, but there was some anomaly between what was happening in the tunnel, and what we were seeing on track.

“And we had to get on top of that. But that’s just the process. And I think if you looked at it the time, you might say it looks like your process isn’t working. That is the process, is that when you see an anomaly, you have to get on top of it, try and understand it, and then get back on track.

“And I think what you’ve seen since is that we’ve understood it, we got back on track. We just have to be eyes wide open for what the next anomaly will be, because there will be another one, because that is the process at the moment.”

Clear stressed that it’s not easy to get it right.

 “It’s not that sometimes these developments work, sometimes these developments don’t work. The development process is exactly that. You are testing something new every week.

“And tunnels at the moment, with the technology we have, they don’t have the ability to model everything perfectly, and maybe 20-30 years in future, will be much better equipped.

“But at the moment, there are differences between what you see in the tunnel and what you see on track, and that therein lies the quality of the driver.

That’s where the drivers that are really good make a difference. Because when you see a development path in a team that’s actually making good progress, and when they slip back a bit, they get on top of it, and they make progress, that’s what the drivers bring to the party.”

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September 18, 2024 · 5:03 am

Wolff: Mercedes W15 will have further floor upgrade in Austin

Mercedes is still juggling W15 floor specs

Toto Wolff expects that Mercedes will have a further floor upgrade at the US GP in Austin as the Brackley Formula 1 team attempts to get to the bottom of its recent struggles.

A new floor was tried in practice at Spa, but then shelved for the race, in which George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were first and second on the road.

The new version was seen again in Zandvoort and Monza, where the team had two difficult weekends.

The old one was then back again for Azerbaijan, and while George Russell finished on the podium, results were inconclusive.

It will be used again this weekend in Singapore, but Wolff say a “new new” version is likely to be seen in Austin, with the three-week break allowing all teams to make and bring fresh parts.

“The track is an outlier,” he said when asked if lessons were learned in Baku. “Nevertheless, it’s not like this was night and day. We still suffered from the same balance performance that we had on the new floor.

“So in Singapore we have the same one. That’s what we shipped over. And we need to race that. But from Austin onwards, we will probably go to a new spec.”

Asked if that was already in preparation or would draw on what was learned in Baku he said: “I think we need to go over the data.

“So you’re going for new, new when the new didn’t work properly, but the old one doesn’t work either. So it’s either old new, or new new. We don’t know yet.”

Wolff admitted that this season’s formbook continues to be impossible to predict.

“You look at the qualifying performances that we had, where we first and second in Silverstone and we were first with Lewis in Spa.

“So there was much more performance in qualifying and in the race. But between those eight cars, it can swing that way, because we’re not talking about tons of time. We’re talking about two or three tenths in either direction, then you have an outlier like Leclerc in Baku or in Monza, where they’ve always been strong.

“So as a matter of fact, this is about who is getting the balance as good as possible, and who is having the tyres in the right window, and what kind of aero concept works well at a given track.

“I will be quite curious to see what happens after Singapore. Ferrari was really strong there last year. So I have no doubt that it’s the third in the row where they can race for the win. Red Bull wasn’t last year. We were doing okay. McLaren was doing okay. So it’s four teams now that are very close.”

Asked about the rest of the season he said:  “I think where we’ve traditionally been fast was Barcelona, Silverstone, Spa at times. Austin was a good one for us. Brazil was a good one for us. Not so many good ones left!

“But the pattern in Ferrari is every year the same, whether they are, going for a championship win or not. It’s those five tracks where they are exceptional, and the driver is exceptional.”

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September 14, 2024 · 3:53 pm

Colapinto had “big confidence boost” after Williams crew fixed crashed FW46

Colapinto was hugely impressive in Baku qualifying

Franco Colapinto says that his crash in FP1 in Baku had a positive outcome as the Williams Formula 1 crew gave him a “big confidence boost” and “energy” after repairing his FW46.

Colapinto had a heavy impact with the wall on Friday as he undertook his first ever laps of a track that was new to him.

Such a crash could have seen him taking a more subdued approach to the rest of the weekend, but in fact it had the opposite affect for a man who has impressed the team with his glass half full attitude.

The car was repaired in time for FP2, and the rookie repaid the team with a sensational qualifying session that saw him eighth, sixth and ninth across the three sessions. He starts one place ahead of team mate Alex Albon.

“Yeah, it was difficult,” he said when asked by the writer about the setback of the early crash.

“But more difficult it was going to be if I couldn’t do FP2. And luckily, the boys in the garage did an amazing job to put the car back out. They didn’t even have lunch, but they were working flat out to put my car out in FP2.

“And after they did that, they gave me a big confidence boost and a lot of energy to try and achieve a good result for them, for the effort that they have been doing this year, and it was nice today to give them back a little bit of what they gave me.

“So very happy about it. Of course, it’s still a long way to go, but it’s always important moment for you to be in Q3. And I did very good laps, every lap was on it.”

Remarkably for his second ever f1 start Colapinto will line up on the grid directly behind World Champions Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso.

“Looking forward to tomorrow,” he said. “I think I’m going to have to practice a few stars to have it a better launch than them! Luckily it is a short straight until Turn 1.

“But I am very excited, it’s an amazing moment, my first Q3, and I am very happy about it, to be honest.

“It’s a moment every driver dreams of, and I achieved it in my second weekend in F1 so I can’t be any more happy.

“It was a very good session. I think we put the laps in, every time I had to go out, we did a very good job as a team. Of course, I would have been good to finish in front of the Aston [of Alonso], maybe, but we did a little step on the setup to see what we can do.

“If it will be in a little bit, a little bit more for the last run on the new tyres, but it didn’t really work out, the rears, they didn’t stay alive for the whole lap. But I think the team did an amazing job to put the two cars in Q3. three.

“It’s a very important moment for Williams. It’s, for me, a dream come true after yesterday’s contact with the wall it was going to be tough, but I think we did very good comeback.”

Colapinto acknowledged that the Azerbaijan GP is rarely uneventful.

“This race is always a drama,” he said. “So let’s see how it is tomorrow. It’s my first race here, first time I’ve been in Baku. So everything is going very quick. I don’t know either the next six races.

“It’s going to be a challenge, at the end of the year. But I am up to the challenge, and I am very happy to be here, and, of course, extremely grateful Williams for this opportunity.”

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September 12, 2024 · 7:58 am

Krack: Aston has “plenty to time” to adjust structure for Newey arrival

Aston already has a lot of technical heavyweights – but Newey will be in charge

Aston Martin Formula 1 boss Mike Krack says that the team has “plenty of time” to adjust to the arrival of Adrian Newey and properly define what his role is.

Newey will start work on March 1 and owner Lawrence Stroll has made it clear that he will be the head of a technical structure that already features a lot of leading names, with others still coming, notably former Ferrari technical chief Enrique Cardile.

McLaren faced an awkward situation early this year when new recruit David Sanchez didn’t fit a revised technical structure and left not long after his arrival.

Krack is confident that Aston will be able to accommodate everyone in the right jobs.

“I think we will have plenty of time with him joining in March,” he said. “We will have a close look at it. Any team that can have someone like that will have to discuss its structure and how to adjust it, to make the best use of it.

“This is what we’re going to do. We’re not in a rush. We have plenty of time. We have some plans that we will need to discuss with him, but I think we will find a good solution.”

Asked by this writer if it might be difficult given the number of top technical people the team has he said: “I think at the end of the day, you have to look at which areas you want to cover, how much overlap do you want to have in a structure, and who is accountable for what? And that is an exercise that we have to go through.

“But you have to do that each time in each department with each new recruit, you need to define what are the roles and the responsibilities and what is this new employee accountable for?

“It’s the same with the senior leadership, the technical leadership. I think if you cover all the areas and you allocate them properly, there will be no such problems.”

He added: “The most important thing in F1 is to be flexible and open for change. If you’re stuck in the past, then you’ve seen some, some examples of the grid, how it can go.

“So I think you need to be open. You need to be dynamic at all times. And that is how we are approaching it.

Krack believes that Newey’s approach will be inspiring for the younger engineers in the Aston camp.

“The thinking differently, that is something that I think could add an extra, but then also the inspiration,” he said.

“I think a lot of engineers will be inspired by the approach, by the way of doing, because it’s a different approach.

“And I think with all the young engineers we are having, plus also the medium level, I think they will all benefit greatly from that, because you just see that things can be done differently, or that you just follow different ideas. I think it will be inspiring for all of us.”

Krack said that Newey’s arrival will make Aston appealing to everyone, including drivers.

“I think it would make a difference for everybody, starting with the staff. I think when you manage to appoint Adrian Newey, I think it’s, first of all, it’s a proof that the project is credible, that the whole vision of Lawrence is not only words, but it’s really action that we can take confidence of as a team.

“This is not anymore underdogs like it used to be in the past. It’s a team that should be confident that it can do it, but then also you have a completely different approach with partners, and same for race drivers. So I think it opens a lot of doors for the future.”

Asked if the door was now open to Max Verstappen he said: “The door for Max Verstappen is always open I think, for every team.”

Newey’s arrival will have an impact on the cost cap. He will now become of the top three highest paid team members whose salaries are outside the cap, and he will thus push someone else into the cap zone – thus absorbing several hundred thousand pounds that now can’t be spent elsewhere.

“It’s a challenge for everybody,” said Krack. “Not only for us, but it’s the same challenge for every team.

“You have a cost cap. In the cost cap, there is the all the relevant personnel that you have to incorporate, you have a top three exclusion, and you have to incorporate your development budget, and a lot of other things as they are described in the financial regulations.

“I think most important thing in these kinds of cases is proper planning and proper anticipation.

“What is going to happen, where are our expenses, and what is our development plan, and then you need contingencies for accidents, for crashes and stuff like that.

“Our finance team is very strong in planning this properly ahead in terms of cost monitoring. So I think, to be honest, I have full confidence that there will be no issue.”

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September 10, 2024 · 11:10 am

Newey: Aston Martin became “a very natural choice”

Newey will officially start work at Silverstone on March 1

Adrian Newey says joining Aston Martin became “a very natural choice” after talking to owner Lawrence Stroll and seeing the team’s new facility at Silverstone.

Newey will officially start at the team on March 1 in the role of technical managing partner, with overall technical control of the organisation.

He is also a shareholder and partner of Stroll in the project.

“I think I felt as if I needed a new challenge,” Newey said of his departure from Red Bull. “And so kind of towards the end of April, I decided I needed to do something different.

“I spent lots of time with Mandy, my wife, kind of discussing, ‘Okay, what’s next? Do we go off and sail around the world? Do I do something different, America’s Cup, or whatever?’ So we took a bit of time out,

“And I felt I’ve been lucky enough to have achieved what I aspired to from the age of 10 or 12, which was simply to be a designer – I don’t think I knew the word engineer – in motor racing, I can honestly say, everything else has been a bonus, having sort of achieved that straight out of university.

“I never, of course, expected anything like what I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with. But you have to be honest with yourself, you have to keep yourself fresh. And so I felt I needed a new challenge. And so took a bit of time off.”

Newey says Stroll was quick to make his interest in his services clear.

“Lawrence and I have known each other off and on over the years,” he said. “We often bump into each other in the [hotel] gym, particularly at the Middle East and Far East races.

“As I announced to everybody that I would be departing the old team I was very flattered to have a lot of approaches from various teams, but really, Lawrence’s passion and commitment and enthusiasm is very endearing. It’s very persuasive.

“The reality is, if you go back 20 years what we now call team principals were actually the owners of the teams, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Eddie Jordan, etc, etc.

“In this modern era Lawrence is actually unique in being the only properly active team owner. And I think that is a different feeling when you have somebody like Lawrence involved like that, it’s back to the old school model.

“And to have the chance to be a shareholder and a partner is something that hasn’t been offered to me before. So it’s a slightly different slant. It’s one I’m very much looking forward to. It became a very natural choice.”

Newey acknowledged that the new Aston Martin facility at Silverstone played a key role in persuading him to join the team.

“I think what Lawrence and Martin [Whitmarsh] have built here, these facilities are just stunning,” he said. “It’s not an easy thing to do, to build a brand new factory in a green field site and have a really nice, warm, creative feel to it.

“Because, after all, that’s what we’re here for, to try to be creative and to come up with good solutions, and particularly with good communication between everybody that works here. And I’ve seen some new buildings that haven’t quite fulfilled that, but this one is has a great feel.

“The proportions are right. It has all the facilities. I’m so looking forward to starting, to getting to know everybody here, to work with them, and go from there.”

Asked what his role will be he said: “Any F1 team is the same, we have three principal departments, which is aerodynamics, mechanical design and vehicle performance or vehicle dynamics.

“So it will be making sure that we try to have synergy between those departments and with Honda on the PU side, because there’ll be probably more than ever, a big interaction between the PU and the chassis. It’s about trying to come up with a holistic product.”

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