F1 veteran explains why Ferrari lost Adrian Newey to Aston Martin: "It was a high figure"

The former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard, has recently given his take on why Ferrari lost out on the legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey. The Brit officially joined Aston Martin in March 2025. Last year, the off-track fight was on between the Lawrence Stroll-owned team and Ferrari for the Brit's signature.

However, after all the back and forth, it was Aston Martin who managed to sign Newey (even made him a shareholder). In line with this, David Coulthard (used to host the Formula for Success podcast with the late. Eddie Jordan, who was Newey's manager) has revealed why the Silverstone-based team signed Newey and Ferrari couldn't.

Coulthard explained it by looking back at the time in 2006, when Red Bull signed Newey, and indirectly touched on the Silverstone-based team's determination to move up in the F1 field.

"Why did Aston Martin manage to persuade Adrian Newey, but Ferrari couldn’t. Was it numbers?... I remember back to when I was with Dietrich, and there was the chance to get Adrian. It was a high figure, and Dietrich was like: ‘I won’t pay that for a designer'," Coulthard said via Planet F1.

The former Red Bull driver further added:

"And I went: ‘Well, you’d pay it for a driver, and a designer is arguably more important than a driver. If you’ve got a great car, an average driver can win races in it. If you’ve got an average car, you need an exceptional driver to win races. And if you’ve got an average car with an average driver, you’ll never win races. So in the end, he obviously understood, agreed, and paid Adrian the money."

Adrian Newey, since joining Aston Martin, has been working mainly on the 2026 Formula 1 car to straightaway put the team in the fight for victories and championships.

Ferrari's take on why they lost out on Adrian Newey

Fred Vasseur - Source: Getty

While David Coulthard has come up with a fascinating take around Adrian Newey, Aston Martin and the Ferrari saga, the Maranello-based team last year, came out on why they missed out signing the legendary aerodynamicist.

In line with this, the Ferrari team boss, Fred Vasseur, had the following to say back in September 2024.

"Newey? There were discussions, yes. But probably his ideas were different from what I had in mind for him." Vasseur said via L'Equipe.

With Newey not in the Italian-outfit setup this year, they've had a tough start to the ongoing 2025 Formula 1 season. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton came into the campaign hoping to fight for the title, but the story has been a whole lot different.

After the first nine rounds, Leclerc is in fifth place in the 2025 drivers' standings but is way behind the leading McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The Monegasque has so far managed only 94 points in comparison to championship leader Piastri's 186.

Next up on the race calendar is the Canadian Grand Prix. The event will take place this week at the Gilles Villeneuve racing circuit. Last year, Charles Leclerc had a DNF in the race.