{"id":318487,"date":"2025-11-30T11:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T11:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/318487\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T11:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T11:51:09","slug":"adrian-newey-launches-new-mclaren-mcl39-investigation-at-qatar-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/318487\/","title":{"rendered":"Adrian Newey launches new McLaren MCL39 investigation at Qatar Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adrian Newey, the soon-to-be Aston Martin team principal, was spotted by PlanetF1.com inspecting the McLaren MCL39 for a third time this season at the Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Newey stands as the most decorated individual in F1 history with involvement in more than 200 race wins and a combined 26 drivers\u2019 and constructors\u2019 title triumphs for the likes of Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Adrian Newey spotted inspecting McLaren MCL39 for a third time at Qatar Grand Prix<\/p>\n

The 66-year-old joined Aston Martin in the newly created role of managing technical partner in March, as well as becoming a team shareholder in the process.<\/p>\n

The F1 design guru is currently leading development of the Honda-powered AMR26, the first car to be produced by Aston Martin under the new F1 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin dropped a huge bombshell earlier this week by announcing that Newey will become team principal ahead of next season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Analysis: Adrian Newey appointed Aston Martin team principal for F1 2026 season<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Is Christian Horner the final piece in Adrian Newey\u2019s Aston Martin masterplan?<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Is Adrian Newey a Christian Horner stop-gap at Aston Martin?<\/a><\/p>\n

The team\u2019s reshuffle will see current team boss Andy Cowell take on the position of chief strategy officer, managing the relationship between the team, new engine partner Honda and fuel supplier Aramco.<\/p>\n

Newey is making his third trackside appearance of the season with Aston Martin in Qatar as he prepares for his new role.<\/p>\n

He previously joined his new team earlier this season at Monaco and Silverstone, with PlanetF1.com reporting that the dominant MCL39<\/a> of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri caught his eye on both occasions.<\/p>\n

And PlanetF1.com once again spotted Newey taking a close look at the title-winning car of 2025 for a third time on the grid ahead of Saturday\u2019s sprint race in Qatar.<\/p>\n

On-the-ground reporters Thomas Maher and Mat Coch captured Newey paying close attention to the rear-right corner of Norris\u2019s McLaren as it sat on the grid in Qatar.<\/p>\n

\"Adrian<\/p>\n

Adrian Newey checks out Lando Norris\u2019s McLaren on the sprint grid in Qatar (Image: Thomas Maher, PlanetF1.com)<\/p>\n

\"Adrian<\/p>\n

Image: Mat Coch, PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

\"Adrian<\/p>\n

Image: Thomas Maher, PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Norris shared the second row of the sprint grid with Fernando Alonso, who claimed fourth in Friday\u2019s sprint qualifying session in Lusail.<\/p>\n

Alonso was unable to hold position across the 19-lap mini race, ultimately finishing seventh after falling behind the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda, as well as Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s Mercedes.<\/p>\n

More on Aston Martin drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Fernando Alonso news<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Lance Stroll news<\/a><\/p>\n

Newey explained the rationale behind his move to the team principal\u2019s position<\/a> on Friday in Qatar, revealing that Cowell \u201cvolunteered\u201d to help manage the relationship between Aston Martin, Honda and Aramco in early 2026.<\/p>\n

He told Sky F1: \u201cTo be perfectly honest, it became very evident that, with the challenge of the \u201926 PU, Andy\u2019s skillset, in terms of helping the three-way relationship between Honda, Aramco and ourselves, is absolutely his skillset,\u201d Newey told Kravitz.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he very magnanimously volunteered to be heavily involved in that through the first part of \u201926.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that left [the question]: \u2018OK, well who\u2019s going to be TP?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I\u2019m going to be doing all the early races anyway, it doesn\u2019t actually particularly change my workload because I\u2019m there anyway, so I may as well pick up that bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newey went on to insist that he is \u201cdetermined\u201d to ensure that his new role does not compromise his duties on the design and development side.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThat\u2019s really what I want to and need to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what gets me out of bed in the morning, so I\u2019m determined not to dilute that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Former F1 driver arrested in \u2018particularly serious case\u2019 of \u2018fraud and embezzlement\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adrian Newey, the soon-to-be Aston Martin team principal, was spotted by PlanetF1.com inspecting the McLaren MCL39 for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2074,2495,64,63,818,913,44,17165,167334,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-318487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-adrian-newey","9":"tag-aston-martin","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-mclaren","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-popular","16":"tag-qatar-grand-prix","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}