Adrian Newey’s next move has been one of the most talked about stories in Formula 1 this year. After much speculation that he’d be off to work with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, he’s staying closer to home by switching to Aston Martin. Off the back of huge investment into a new factory, including a state-of-the-art wind tunnel and a wave of new people arriving to fill the facility (sorry – ‘campus’), it seems like Lawrence Stroll is once again putting his cheque book where it matters, by signing the greatest designer this sport has known.
You have to give Stroll credit. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea but there’s no doubt he’s prepared to do and invest whatever it takes to make Aston Martin a World Championship contender. But that in itself begs a question, and I am asked it all the time: ‘Can a single person, even Adrian Newey, really make that big difference these days?’
Today’s top F1 teams employ around 800 people, despite being in a cost cap era. In comparison, when Newey’s cars were dominating in the 1990s, Williams had around one quarter of that number. A huge amount of this growth has come from design, R&D, IT and engineering; so simple mathematics would therefore suggest that each individual’s contribution is less valuable than 30 years ago.
