Newey makes his long-awaited arrival to Aston next month but there has already been plenty of discussion about the designer in the Silverstone HQ.
Aston broke the bank to convince Newey to join their project and the former Red Bull designer is coming with one remit – to design a car to win the World Championship.
But beyond that, it seems Newey will have free range to do what he likes with owner Stroll reportedly saying that he 66-year-old is not controllable.
“Adrian is going to be a free spirit, you can’t tell him what to do,” Alonso told Spanish media at the F1 75 event. “The day he arrives, if he can give us a hand in 2025, fine. If he wants to work only in 2026, fine too.
“Because then he has clear ideas and doesn’t want to waste a single day. I asked Lawrence about it several times and he always tells me that he doesn’t think we can control him.”
One of the main beneficiaries of Newey’s move is Alonso whose swan song years in F1 finally sees him link up with Newey, and the Spaniard believes a figure like Newey is always more important than who is in the cockpit.
“Adrian Newey will always have more impact than any driver,” he said. “Drivers come and go, the 20 of us here try to drive well and we have achieved things until we get to F1.
“I don’t know what [Lewis] Hamilton will bring or add to Ferrari, it will surely be less than what a designer can bring.”
Another man in a new role is Andy Cowell who became team principal at the start of the year.
The former Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains staff member also spoke of Newey’s role in the team.
“I guess the organisation changes we made were really to make the existing organisation more efficient,” he told media including PlanetF1.com in London.
“Flatter organisations are naturally more efficient with less reporting lines. Communication is quicker.
“There tends to be less reports written, less meetings, and so progress is made quicker. I guess some of that was with a view to Adrian coming, but most of it was just to improve the efficiency of our business.
“Adrian begins the first Monday in March, so a couple of weeks away. Everybody on site is excited.
“So when he arrives, you know that there is a new office that’s large enough for a drawing board to go in so that’s in place.
“And we’re just excited to have Adrian on board, to work on the creativity of our race cars, to work on our methods.”
