{"id":724394,"date":"2026-06-09T04:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T04:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/724394\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T04:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T04:07:18","slug":"adrian-newey-launches-double-mclaren-investigation-at-monaco-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/724394\/","title":{"rendered":"Adrian Newey launches double McLaren investigation at Monaco Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey was spotted by PlanetF1.com examining the McLaren MCL40 cars of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on the grid ahead of Sunday\u2019s Monaco Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Newey, who was appointed Aston Martin team principal ahead of the F1 2026 season, made a welcome return to the paddock in Monte Carlo last weekend.<\/p>\n

Adrian Newey examines McLaren MCL40 on Monaco Grand Prix grid<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust<\/p>\n

As reported by PlanetF1.com last week<\/a>, the 67-year-old had not attended a race since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March, with reports last month claiming he recently suffered a bout of illness.<\/p>\n

Newey\u2019s return to trackside activities coincided with Aston Martin\u2019s first points finish of F1 2026, with Fernando Alonso eventually classified in 10th place.<\/p>\n

Newey, the most successful designer in F1 history, is renowned for studying the designs of rival teams on the starting grid ahead of the race.<\/p>\n

And the Aston Martin boss was spotted by PlanetF1.com\u2019s on-the-ground reporter Thomas Maher examining Lando Norris\u2019s McLaren shortly before the Monaco Grand Prix (below).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

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

\"An<\/p>\n

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

Newey was then seen moving to the other side of the grid to inspect the sister McLaren of Oscar Piastri (below), who started one place ahead of Norris in seventh.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

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

\"Adrian<\/p>\n

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

As reported at the time by PlanetF1.com<\/a>, Newey\u2019s only previous trackside appearance of F1 2026 in Melbourne saw him pay close attention to the Audi R26 of Nico Hulkenberg.<\/p>\n

He was also spotted examining Lewis Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari SF-26 on the grid<\/a> at Albert Park.<\/p>\n

Newey is known to have a long-standing interest in the technical development of McLaren, where his former Red Bull colleague Rob Marshall acts as the team\u2019s chief technical officer and chief designer.<\/p>\n

Newey attended three races with Aston Martin over the course of the 2025 season and was spotted inspecting the title-winning MCL39 car<\/a> on each occasion in Monte Carlo, Britain and Qatar.<\/p>\n

Analysis: Monaco Grand Prix<\/p>\n

Monaco GP conclusions: Mini Max, no Russell sympathy, Hamilton mystery<\/a><\/p>\n

Monaco Grand Prix driver ratings: Antonelli masterclass, Russell in turmoil<\/a><\/p>\n

PlanetF1.com revealed in March that Newey is set to vacate the position of Aston Martin team principal<\/a> in due course.<\/p>\n

The veteran designer is understood to have led the search for his long-term successor since his own appointment to the position last year, with Jonathan Wheatley emerging as Newey\u2019s prime target.<\/p>\n

The Audi F1 team went on to confirm the departure of Wheatley within 48 hours of PlanetF1.com\u2019s report being published.<\/p>\n

Wheatley previously worked alongside Newey at Red Bull as sporting director, playing an instrumental role in the team\u2019s dominance with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Wheatley announced his departure from Red Bull in 2024 to take up his first role as a team boss with Sauber, overseeing the team\u2019s Audi F1 transition for F1 2026.<\/p>\n

Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets in Australia, Newey admitted that he has found his new responsibilities as team principal \u201ca little bit\u201d distracting from his core work on the design and development side.<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: Red Bull revealed as F1 2026 engine benchmark in FIA document<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey was spotted by PlanetF1.com examining the McLaren MCL40 cars of Lando Norris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[2074,2495,64,63,818,913,41683,806,805,803,804,44,17165,85],"class_list":["post-724394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-adrian-newey","tag-aston-martin","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-mclaren","tag-monaco-grand-prix","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724394","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=724394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}