A few days after the announcement of the Newey Aston Martin marriage, once the media hype had subsided, everything seemed clear. And, above all, once the details of the agreement had been revealed, it became clear that Adrian could only end up where he ended up. And not because of the exorbitant sum put on the table by the English company (120 million euros in five years), but because Newey asked to “enter” the heart of the various brands, to take over everything, not just the design and development of the single-seater.
And in fact the super technician obtained 2.5% of Aston Martin shares and, above all, the role of technical managing the brand. The owner of the team, Lawrence Stroll, was quick to say that taking Newey was a great deal and that in the end it even cost little. Yes, but there is a small detail: he definitively handed him the keys to the house. He could do it, the others could not. But let’s go step by step.
At Aston Martin – a crazy brand, it must be remembered – the thing was taken well, very well, judging by the open applause that the 800 employees paid to Newey during his visit to the Silverstone factory. But we are sure that the same would not have happened in other companies.
While no one would have any problems – indeed… – handing over the house keys for the design and development of a single-seater, the matter is different when it comes to giving them carte blanche for the production of series cars. And, given that behind each team there is a giant of the four wheels (from Mercedes to Volkswagen Group, from Ferrari to Renault or McLaren), the matter has become complicated.
On the other hand, the English technician’s passion for supercars is well known and even at Red Bull (which does not produce series cars) he managed to create a car of his own, the recently presented RB17. A brilliant GT (it aims to be faster than an F1 on various tracks since it has no regulation constraints), but questionable from a strategic and stylistic point of view, full as it is of aerodynamic extractors, spoilers and PlayStation-like shapes.
And perhaps the recent launch of the RB17 has scared all the other manufacturers a little, making the problem a bigger problem.
Because every road car from Mercedes, Vw Group, Alpine, McLaren or Ferrari must not only go fast but must respect the history of the house, must be “beautiful” according to the canons of the brand, must be consistent with the history of the brand. In short, a car like the RB17 would be unthinkable for all the others. Just as it would be unthinkable to entrust gigantic design departments to a single technician.
To understand the speech. When Giugiaro was about to sell Italdesign to the Volkswagen Group, he told Ferdinand Piech that he had many fears related to the fact of tying himself to a single manufacturer, he who had designed the most disparate cars. However, the number one of the VW giant convinced him. How? Like this: “A single manufacturer? We – he told him – give you carte blanche on Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Škoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN, you can design whatever you want, from supercars to small cars”. Giugiaro accepted but then the marriage did not work. Too many management constraints, the brands were too big and in the end Giorgetto left Italdesign. Number ones, especially if they are brilliant, are cumbersome for the automotive giants. The story of Adrian Newey proves it.
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