MIAMI – Fernando Alonso said the prospect of Adrian Newey joining his Aston Martin team would be the realisation of a career goal.
It was confirmed on Wednesday Newey, who is widely considered the greatest car designer in F1 history, will leave reigning champions Red Bull in early 2025.
Newey is understood to have had offers from both Ferrari and Alonso’s Aston Martin team.
The Englishman has previously said his biggest regret is never building an F1 car for either Lewis Hamilton, who joins Ferrari next year, or Alonso — who recently signed a contract to drive for Aston Martin until 2026.
“I always wanted to work with him once in my life,” Alonso said ahead of the weekend’s Miami Grand Prix. “I respect him a lot. I consider him the best probably F1 ever had, a legend of the sport.
“I feel in a way privileged to drive alongside him in the paddock, obviously as a competitor, but I feel lucky to be part of his journey and he was part of my journey as well because he always competed against his cars.”
Referencing an upcoming delivery of the hypercar Newey built with Red Bull and Aston Martin, Alonso said: “I will have the Aston Martin Valykrie in my garage and that will be a little gift to myself, having Adrian Newey’s car!”
Alonso revealed that he turned down an opportunity to join Red Bull before it became the dominant force in the early 2010s.
He said his conversations with the team have always featured Newey. “I was close a few times,” he said. “Even spoke with him a few times because some of those meetings in the past were not only with Christian and Helmut [Marko], some of them was with Adrian.
“I always expressed my admiration to him and he was always sharing his respect also to me. Let’s see what he does in the future.”
Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll has bankrolled big-money moves for Alonso and a host of big-name engineers from rival teams and invested in a state-of-the-art facility at Silverstone with the goal of turning the team into world champions down the line.
Alonso said the team’s success in future does not success in adding Newey. “It’s a question for Lawrence. We are very happy with our technical department. Adrian is the best or one of the best out there but he needs to fit in a team. It’s more Lawrence’s decision than Adrian’s, ultimately, decision that needs to happen.
“We are not focused on that at the moment there are a lot of things we need to fix on the car here in Miami.”