Several senior engineers set to leave Aston Martin F1 team

After another bruising year on the race track, Aston Martin’s Formula 1 team is to undergo another restructure of its engineering department.

Up to seven senior figures are believed to be leaving the team entirely or being redeployed to the company’s advanced technologies division, among them Eric Blandin, who was recruited from Mercedes as deputy technical director in 2022, then shifted to an aero role in a subsequent restructure.

It is understood that this is not a knee-jerk response prompted by the team’s competitive slump – in Austin, Fernando Alonso vacillated between saying Aston had the eighth- or ninth-fastest car – but the consequence of feedback from managing technical partner Adrian Newey, who joined from Red Bull earlier this year.

Aston Martin has been on a sustained shopping spree over the past several seasons, hiring (and firing) Dan Fallows from Red Bull as technical director, bringing Blandin from Mercedes, and Enrico Cardile from Ferrari as chief technical officer. Cardile’s period of contractual gardening leave from the Scuderia was so lengthy that Newey’s appointment was not even on the radar when he agreed terms to move to Aston Martin.

But simply buying in high-profile engineers from other organisations is not necessarily a shortcut to success, because designing and F1 car is such an enormous undertaking that it is the work of hundreds of people. Structure and process are required, and Newey has evolved a particular style of working: maintaining an overall view of the car concept while gravitating towards areas where his skill set can be of particular use.

He is famously averse to ingrained bad habits, lack of flexibility, and internal politics. Car performance is what drives him and he expects the same of his colleagues.

In the cost-cap era it is also now customary for teams to review their staffing structure to comply with the regulations as staff move between teams. Under the cap, the salaries of everyone involved in the design of the car must fit within the budget, the only exception being three ‘tentpole’ allowances, usually for senior executives.

“We don’t comment on internal staff matters and we don’t have anything to announce,” said a team spokesperson when asked by Autosport about the imminent reshuffle.

Among the areas highlighted by Newey as a notable shortcoming in Aston Martin’s capabilities, despite huge investment by owner Lawrence Stroll in facilities, is its simulator. In an interview earlier this year he said that the existing simulator would “be a handicap for two years”.

Newey poached Giles Wood from Red Bull this season as simulation and modelling director, with a mandate to fast-track improvements in this sphere. Woods represents another key – and likely expensive – hire: in Newey’s autobiography he credits Woods, along with strategy chief Will Courtenay, with massively improving Red Bull’s competitiveness through 2010, when the team had the best car but made heavy weather of winning the world championship through operational and strategic mistakes.

When Andy Cowell joined as CEO a year ago he wasted little time in making necessary changes to the structure, including the addition of the team principal role to his remit. Having been in charge of Mercedes High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth throughout that manufacturer’s period of dominance in the hybrid era, he knows what a successful organisation looks like.

Andy Cowell, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

It’s understood that this latest bout of rationalisation has taken in feedback from both Newey’s and Cardile’s experience as they shifted the focus of the technical group to the 2026 project.

“Ever since Lawrence bought the team, his words have been backed up with action,” Cowell told Autosport during an exclusive interview this autumn. “When you see the campus, when you see the investment he’s got inside the campus, when you see his approach on recruiting people like Adrian, he’s determined. At which point, the whole paddock can see that there’s a determination to go from a team that was about survival to a team that is here to win.”

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– The Motorsport.com Team

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