(Motorsport-Total.com) – Former Haas Formula 1 team principal Günther Steiner believes that Adrian Newey should never have taken on the role of team principal at Aston Martin. The technical genius joined the Silverstone team in 2025 as Managing Technical Partner and shareholder after nearly two decades at Red Bull.
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In November 2025, it was then announced that Newey would also take on the position of team principal for the 2026 season, replacing Andy Cowell, who moved to Chief Strategy Officer. In the podcast Drive to Wynn, Steiner now explains that Newey should never have taken on these additional responsibilities.
“No,” Steiner says when asked if Newey should have taken this additional step. “And I think if you asked Adrian himself today, he would say: ‘I don’t know why I did it or why I agreed to it.'”
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“I don’t know how it came about, whether he wanted to be team principal or not, but obviously that is not in his strength profile,” says the former Haas team principal. “He is very good at what he does – designing cars. I mean, obviously not the Aston Martin at the moment, but he will sort that out.”
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Steiner recalls: “That didn’t work for long”
“But for him, the step there was more like: Why the hell would I do that? I think it was one of those things like: ‘I have to be team principal,’ without really knowing what a team principal actually does or what it means to be one.”
“And that didn’t work for long,” Steiner recalls with regard to the current situation of the British racing team. “It shows once again that you should always place people where their strengths lie and never promote them beyond their abilities.”
Aston Martin started the new regulation era with a new engine partnership with Honda but has so far struggled with a number of problems. While Lawrence Stroll’s team continues to work on solutions, Aston Martin currently sits eleventh in the Constructors’ Championship after the first four races of the season, still without points.
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