May 15 (GMM) Former Ferrari and Mercedes engineering chief Aldo Costa believes Aston Martin made a major error in how it structured the arrival of legendary designer Adrian Newey.
The comments come amid Aston Martin’s disastrous start to the 2026 season with new partner Honda, following months of vibration, reliability and drivability problems.
Costa also questioned the team’s overall direction, including its driver lineup of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
“Potential? I don’t know,” Costa said on the Terruzzi Racconta podcast.
“Maybe I don’t like the Aston Martin pairing – perhaps even from a mentality standpoint – the duo of Stroll and Alonso.”
He argued Aston Martin’s underperformance is especially alarming given the scale of investment behind the project.
“Cadillac isn’t in the game yet,” Costa said. “Aston Martin, though, is worse relative to the potential it had.”
Costa was particularly critical of Newey’s early-season public criticism of Honda after Aston Martin’s Melbourne disaster.
“I’ll say this openly – it has never happened to me before that I found an attack from Newey so out of place, carried out in such a violent and public way, right at the beginning of a championship, against your own partner,” he said.
“You just don’t do that.”
The veteran engineer believes the episode exposed deeper leadership failures inside the organisation.
“Unfortunately it highlighted a lack of management, a lack of leadership,” Costa continued.
“When they later declared ‘In November we went to Japan, we saw they weren’t using the same people from the old Formula 1 project, that they were behind on power…’
“In November? You should have known before November.”
Costa added that true leadership means protecting the group publicly during difficult moments. “In my opinion, a boss is not someone who says: ‘If we win, I win – if we lose, you lose.’
“You should never do something like that. If you’re a good leader, in my opinion, it’s exactly the opposite.”
Costa also suggested Newey’s strengths have always been technical rather than organisational.
“I’ve never worked with him, but I have enormous respect – he’s arguably the most successful person in Formula 1,” he said.
“I have boundless respect for his technical abilities.”
But he added: “Feedback from those who have worked with him confirms that his greatest talent is technical, with a slightly lesser one in organisational and managerial matters.”
Costa believes that is why Newey thrived at Red Bull Racing under a broader management structure.
“Therefore, he needs support – it’s important to find a team like Red Bull,” he said.
“At Red Bull, while he played a key role, he didn’t formally hold the title of technical director.”
The comments come as Aston Martin appears to be quietly recalibrating Newey’s role internally after his highly publicised arrival, while recent reports in Britain claimed the 66-year-old has also been recovering from illness and working partly from home.
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