{"id":550134,"date":"2026-03-19T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550134\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:06:09","slug":"f1-2026-aston-martin-searching-for-team-principal-to-replace-adrian-newey-fernando-alonso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550134\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 2026: Aston Martin searching for Team Principal to replace Adrian Newey, Fernando Alonso"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aston Martin\u2019s nightmare season has added a fresh chapter with rumours the team is on the hunt for a new Team Principal.<\/p>\n

Adrian Newey was announced in the role in November last year, adding to his position as the managing technical partner for the team.<\/p>\n

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship\u2122 LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

But after two horror races to begin the season, Newey appears set to hand over the reigns of the role as the hunt for a new leader begins.<\/p>\n

Several key figures are said to have been approached about taking over the position with former McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl and Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley in the running, according to PlanetF1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seidl is reportedly the preferred option and could walk right into the role having departed F1 in the middle of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWheatley and Newey worked together at Red Bull. There\u2019s suggestions he wants out of Switzerland for personal reasons, but likely comes with lengthy gardening leave. Aston need him sooner,\u201d PlanetF1\u2019s Mat Coch wrote on X.<\/p>\n

The process to find a Team Principal is reportedly said to have begun several months ago, before Newey took the position from Andy Cowell who was moved into a new role as Aston Martin\u2019s chief strategy officer.<\/p>\n

The latest move comes on the heels of the team enduring a horror start to the 2026 season thanks to vibration issues with their Honda engine.<\/p>\n

The damning issue is hindering the rest of the car\u2019s components while also posing as a huge risk to the safety of the drivers.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, it was revealed the severe shaking could lead to permanent nerve damage for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver\u2019s fingers,\u201d Newey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFernando (Alonso) is of the feeling that he cannot do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage to his hands. Lance (Stroll) is of the opinion that he cannot do more than 15 laps before that threshold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither driver has come close to finishing a race so far this season with damning vision showing Alonso taking his hands off the wheel and shaking them while going down the main straight during the China Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\"Aston<\/p>\n

Stroll pulled his car off the track after only nine laps around the Shanghai International after he \u201cstarted losing feeling in his hands\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alonso retired less than halfway through the race with the team confirming it was due to the vibration issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cFernando has retired from the #ChineseGP due to discomfort from vibrations,\u201d they wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Given the disaster shows no signs of being fixed anytime soon, Sky Sports\u2019 Martin Brundle said it could take the team six months to rectify the problems and to get their vehicles competitive.<\/p>\n

Whoever takes on the Team Principal role will need to be prepared to be in the hot seat in front of the media from the outset.<\/p>\n

The Formula 1 paddock will return to action when the grid heads to the famous Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aston Martin\u2019s nightmare season has added a fresh chapter with rumours the team is on the hunt for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[2074,2620,1724,64,63,936,11108,272181,2057,845,2105,272186,272185,102663,88449,34866,7983,122335,39008,272182,22298,272184,272183,806,805,803,804,18244,272180,2643,85,6221,13773,272187,12000,2062],"class_list":["post-550134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-adrian-newey","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bahrain","tag-chief-strategy-officer","tag-damning-issue","tag-europe","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-grid-heads","tag-horror-engine-issues","tag-horror-start","tag-james-mckern","tag-joe-portlock","tag-jonathan-wheatley","tag-key-figures","tag-lawrence","tag-lengthy-gardening-leave","tag-martin-brundle","tag-martin-owner","tag-mat-coch","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-nightmare-season","tag-permanent-nerve","tag-sky-sports","tag-sports","tag-switzerland","tag-team-principal","tag-vibration-issues","tag-western-asia","tag-western-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550134","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=550134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}