McLaren are not pursuing Adrian Newey, confirms their CEO, Zak Brown. The 52-year-old is satisfied with the technical team currently assembled at Woking. After a fantastic eighteen months of development, it is unsurprising that McLaren are not looking for major changes.
Brown: Newey is not needed at McLaren
Adrian Newey’s future is understandably a huge talking point. At one stage, McLaren were mentioned as a team in contention to sign the British engineer.
That said, these reports were predominantly in the immediate aftermath when Newey’s Red Bull departure was announced.
Since then, McLaren have not been seriously linked to the 65-year-old.
According to Zak Brown, his services are not required in the team:
“We’re not going to sign Adrian,” the McLaren boss told the BBC.
“I’m very happy with the team. Adrian is a great friend, huge talent, [his] resume second to none.
“But with what we have in place here, I couldn’t be happier.
“We can get the job done. I’m happy with the race team we have and we’re going to try to win the world championship with the team sitting here today.”
Newey likely headed to Aston Martin
All indications suggest that Newey’s final destination in Formula 1 will be Aston Martin.
Lawrence Stroll has been working on this move for months, and Aston’s poor development in 2024 is just another reason to strengthen the team’s technical department.
Ferrari are essentially ruled out of contention in the race for Newey, with negotiations reaching a standstill.
Much like McLaren, the Italian squad are willing to retain their existing structure.
With both teams regularly contending for victories, small tweaks – rather than complete overhauls – are the preferred course of action.
For Aston Martin, however, signing someone of such calibre is seen as a necessary move ahead of the 2026 regulation changes.
McLaren will look to build upon the MCL38’s foundation and mount a Championship charge.
Elsewhere on the grid, an announcement on Adrian Newey can be expected in the coming weeks.
