Lance Stroll says Adrian Newey is “a great leader” with the Aston Martin team principal “obsessed” with bringing more performance to the AMR26 car.
It comes after PlanetF1.com revealed this week that Newey is leading the search for his successor as Aston Martin boss.
Lance Stroll: Adrian Newey ‘a great leader’ at Aston Martin
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Newey was installed as Aston Martin team principal late last year as the legendary designer took a team management role for the first time in his illustrious career.
The 67-year-old has overseen Aston Martin’s troubled start to the F1 2026 season, which has seen the team hamstrung by severe vibrations with its new Honda power unit.
PlanetF1.com reported on Wednesday that Aston Martin is actively looking to appoint a new team principal with Newey, who had previously hinted at his appointment being only a short-term measure, leading the search.
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PlanetF1.com understands that former McLaren team principals Andreas Seidl and Martin Whitmarsh, Max Verstappen’s long-serving race engineer GianPiero Lambiase and Audi F1 bosses Mattia Binotto and Jonathan Wheatley have all being approached over recent months.
It is believed that Wheatley, who previously worked alongside Newey at Red Bull, is Newey’s prime target for the role due to his skillset and personality type.
Sources have indicated to PlanetF1.com that Wheatley, who officially took up the position of Audi F1 team principal less than a year ago, is very happy with his current role at the Swiss-based team.
However, personal considerations could influence a desire to return to living in the United Kingdom.
In a statement to PlanetF1.com on Thursday, Aston Martin said: “The team will not be engaging in media speculation about its senior leadership team.
“Adrian Newey continues to lead the team as Team Principal and Managing Technical Partner.”
Stroll recently offered a glowing endorsement of Newey’s “inspiring” leadership style, revealing that the veteran designer is “just obsessed” with adding more performance.
He told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “He’s all about performance, bringing performance to the car.
“He’s just obsessed about how we can bring more performance to the car and he’s a great leader overall, I think, just trying to extract from the most from everyone in their individual positions.
“It’s inspiring to be a part of that and a privilege to work alongside him, for sure.”
Shortly after his appointment as team principal last November, Newey remarked that he was keen to ensure that his new responsibilities did not detract from his design-and-development commitments.
Newey’s absence from last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix raised eyebrows on social media after he said last year that he would be attending “all the early races” in 2026.
As reported by PlanetF1.com earlier this week, Newey never planned to attend the race in China with it thought to have been important for him to lead technical decisions at the factory following a challenging season opener for Aston Martin in Australia.
PlanetF1.com understands that Newey’s current schedule as team principal will see him attend between 10 and 14 races of the 2026 season.
Newey’s schedule is thought to be similar to that of his immediate predecessor Andy Cowell.
PlanetF1.com revealed last month that Cowell is set to leave Aston Martin in June.
Additional reporting by Mat Coch and Thomas Maher
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