Mansell89 wrote: ↑29 Mar 2024, 23:05
LionsHeart wrote: ↑29 Mar 2024, 17:50
Ground Effect wrote: ↑29 Mar 2024, 17:43
Rumours that Aston Martin are looking at Adrian Newey, made an offer during the Saudi GP. Obviously not sure if it's true or if there's a chance he could leave, but if you're McLaren and there is such an opportunity, you throw you hat in, right?
EDIT: Apparently, it's not a rumour, it's now being reported by Motorsport.com
If I were the head of McLaren, I would not hire Adrian Newey. He himself left the team at one time. Including because of disagreements with Ron Dennis. Why does the team need him? Red Bull has many engineers who influence the efficiency of the car. Newey alone solves nothing. Last year they said a lot about Dan Fallows, they say, look, Aston lured away Adrian’s right hand and now their car is now consistently fighting for podiums. So many rave reviews about him. Just some kind of star. And then what happened? The team went downhill. This year, Aston did not produce anything powerful, and Dan Fallows still works in the green team.
Do not write off Dan Fallows- what he did at Aston last year was little short of miraculous and lest we forget he is also closely matched with Mercedes in the same wind tunnel and rear suspension- they will be a MASSIVE threat for 2026 designing using their state of the art facilities and wind tunnel around a works Honda.
They also have a very detailed upgrade plan for the season so they may yet finish stronger this time.
We’ve got a fascinating technical team too and I really like Sanchez paired with Prodromou.
Newey is astonishing and of course any team would want to sign him - I just doubt we’re on each others radar. He either goes Ferrari with Hamilton (which would explain Lewis’ move even more if he has been tipped off!) or he goes and leads Aston to some new history. Or he retires and does a Ross- going fishing!
If we can begin to claw back Red Bull, it looks beautifully set up for McLaren and Ferrari to share some great battles near the front, and that excites me as a fan.
In general, I will never agree with you about Aston. Last year, on both English-language and Russian-language channels, I saw how Fallows was almost idolized. And now nothing has been heard about him, since Aston was lost in 5th place in strength. The rear suspension and gearbox only limit Aston now. The same thing happened last year. I dare to suggest that the transition to pushrods at Mercedes did not pass without a trace for both Mercedes itself and Aston. In 2026, Aston will have to design and manufacture its own suspension and gearbox. This is something that the Force India team has never done. So there may be problems.
Last year I didn’t say a single bad word about Aston. No one. Just watching the idolization of one man who joined the team as Newey's right-hand man. At the beginning of the year the car drove and then got lost. At the beginning of the year they were the second force. Why did I even raise this topic: you shouldn’t exaggerate the influence of one person on a team. This is nonsense. Even during the championship years of 2010-2013, Newey repeatedly said that not everything depends on me and that the team has very strong aerodynamics engineers.
Newey's strength is in finding a good basic structure. He clearly sees how the final car should turn out. Which concept for the future will be more advantageous in the long term. But he only draws on a drawing board (Kuhlmann). The rest should redraw this on the computer CAD. Next, check in the CFD, then 60% of the model in the wind tunnel, then again work on the drawing board, and so on in order until the work is sent to the production workshop. In a word, Newey only sets the direction of the work, but at the core of everything, Red Bull simply has a high class of aerodynamic engineers.