Mercedes passed on the opportunity to try and sign Adrian Newey but is likely to be facing stiff competition from Aston Martin in future as a result, according to Toto Wolff.
Current Red Bull chief technical officer Newey will join Aston Martin in 2025, where there have been a number of other key hires in recent years including former Mercedes power unit boss Andy Cowell. Ferrari was also believed to be chasing Newey’s services once his departure from Red Bull was announced, and Wolff says Mercedes also looked into it before opting against restructuring its technical department.
“Well every team kind of, I think, gave it a thought,” Wolff said. “James [Allison] and I discussed it, elaborated about it, and came to the conclusion that the structure that we have today is the one that we have faith in and we want to continue with. Having said that, also we have great respect for Newey, but we passed on that one because we believe in our [current structure].”
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And Wolff believes the partnership of Newey and Cowell – who is group chief technical officer at Aston Martin – gives Lawrence Stroll’s team every chance of joining McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes in fighting at the front in Formula 1.
“I think the track record that Adrian has in Formula 1 speaks for itself. A great designer, the greatest designer in Formula 1 when you look at the stats, and if you combine it with somebody like Andy Cowell who is, for me, one of the strongest leaders I have ever met in any industry, and if they can make that work, I think it’s a package to be reckoned with.
“But it’s good. The more teams that are competitive at the front, you look at the race [in Baku] from a fan’s standpoint – I wish we would have played there in the front – but it was marvelous. I think four drivers now that race for the drivers’ world championship as it stands, and McLaren’s taken the lead in the constructors’ – who would have thought of that five months ago?
“So if a team like Aston Martin, with this great name, can be part of the leading group it would be fantastic.”
Wolff also believes the current picture at the front of the field is so close that there appear to be bigger fluctuations in form just based on tracks that suit specific cars more than others.
“You look at the qualifying performances that we had, where we were first and second in Silverstone and we were first [in the race] with Lewis [Hamilton] in Spa, so that wasn’t much more performance in qualifying and in the race, but between those eight cars it can swing that way.
“Because we are not talking about tonnes of time, we are talking about two or three tenths in the direction then you have an outlier like [Charles] Leclerc in Baku or in Monza, where they have always been strong. So as a matter of fact this is about who is getting the balance as good as possible, who is having the tires 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 quite strong there last year, so I have no doubt that is the third in a 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.”
