Newey admits the 2026 F1 regulations are 'slightly scary' but also calls them 'interesting'

The 66-year-old has spoken for the first time since he joined Aston Martin in September 2024, starting work for the British team on 1 March.

The master designer took up the Managing Technical Partner Role at the Silverstone-based team, with his main focus based on the brand-new regulations that will come into force in the 2026 season, making massive changes to the make-up of the chassis and power units for every team on the grid, with DRS also being replaced by active aerodynamics.

Speaking in his first interview since joining Aston Martin, Newey had his say on how the 2026 season may play out as a result of these new regulations.

"We saw that at the start of 2022, with teams taking really quite different directions. Now, of course, four seasons on, they've largely converged, but initially that wasn't the case. Variation between teams is great. It's all a bit boring if the cars look identical and the only way you can tell them apart is the livery," continued the master designer.

There has been plenty of praise from people inside Aston Martin about the work that Newey is doing already, with Fernando Alonso saying he is not too concerned about next season as Newey works on the car, while Team Ambassador Pedro de la Rosa has said the Brit has had a "tremendous influence" over the team in just his first couple of months.

But for Newey, these regulations changes spark a change that even he hasn't seen before in several decades of car designing, winning 12 constructors' championships and 13 drivers' titles in the process.

"The other aspect of this is that, for the first time I can remember, we've got both the chassis regulations and power unit regulations changing at the same time," the Brit stated.

"Next year marks the start of our works partnership with Honda. I've got a lot of trust in Honda and a huge amount of respect for them, having worked with them before. They took a year out of F1 and so, to some extent, they're playing catch-up, but they're a great group of engineers and very much an engineering-led company," concluded Newey.