"Make Alonso champion, Adrian": what purpose does Messiah Newey serve in arriving at the Monaco GP?

"Make Alonso champion, Adrian." The fan shouted the wish to Adrian Newey as he entered the Monaco paddock . Any fan of the Spanish driver would identify with it. The British engineer even personalizes the hopes of Fernando Alonso himself, as he himself has acknowledged. As if Newey were serving as the final straw in his racing career.

For the first time since 2006, the British engineer is wearing a uniform other than Red Bull's on a circuit . He appeared in the Aston Martin garage with his iconic notebook wrapped around his drivers' cars, gaining firsthand insight into how the team works on the ground. As he has been seen so many times in the past with other teams.

That Newey's presence in Monaco will contribute to a change of direction for the AMR25 would be too much to expect. The reality of Formula 1 is infinitely more complex. It is justified in a broader context. Although it won't spoil anything for Alonso and Stroll that Newey analyzes the performance of the green car on one of the, a priori, most feared tracks on the calendar, even though the first day surprised with a better-than-expected performance. Perhaps Williams could offer a mirror .

The mansion full of furniture

"Having the opportunity to be a shareholder and partner is something I've never been offered before," Newey acknowledged as one of the reasons for signing with Aston Martin. Reducing Newey's input to the car designer minimizes the scope of his significant responsibilities. Because Newey is the technical mastermind , and his presence in Monaco is just another small step in his integration process and understanding of the team's structure and operation.

Lawrence Stroll 's extraordinary investments undoubtedly seduced Newey. However, Aston Martin still resembles that grand mansion quickly filled with luxurious furnishings that still needs to be arranged in order and harmony. In the technical area, Newey's final responsibility .

"He'll see how we operate on a race weekend, how we optimize the car we have, and how we implement a different strategy. And so having his experience and perspective, analyzing what's going well and what's not, helps us with our to-do list of things we need to work on to become a stronger team," Aston Martin boss Andy Cowell explained on Thursday. on Newey's presence in Monaco.

Newey has been integrated into the team from the pit wall to the technical meetings during the Monaco weekend. This is a valuable addition given his global experience and holistic technical vision, as the British engineer has worked from track engineer to overall car designer from his drawing board. "His experience, vision, and creativity will help absolutely everyone in the team, and working on track will now give him a more complete vision ," Cowell explained on Thursday. In other words, his presence in Monaco adds another piece to the puzzle being assembled at Aston Martin.

Cowell explained another of Newey's major missions in this first phase: to ensure that the different tools incorporated - the new furniture - respond to the crucial strategic objective for Aston Martin: " The evaluation of the quality of each of the steps we use , from the initial idea to the result of the wind tunnel," explained the CEO of the British team.

That means the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) tools, the new wind tunnel, and the parts manufacturing process are well-oiled, and all processes are aligned with the track. "It's about both the robustness of each area and the accuracy, as well as the timescale, because here we're trying to make each area as fast as possible. However, it has to be precise. ( Newey) gives us an assessment of both aspects ." Meanwhile, he delves into the 2026 project .

Since its arrival on March 1, the message from Aston Martin and Newey himself has shifted the current car away from its responsibilities. However, its presence in Monaco could have another under-the-radar mission: an on-the-ground x-ray of a car that has lost its way in successive developments, except for the recent break at Imola.

"My focus will obviously be on 2026 but Lawrence certainly wants me to be somewhat involved in the 2025 car ," Newey himself acknowledged at his presentation with Aston Martin . Could this also be a reason for the visit to Monaco? "Understandably, Lawrence wants us to do as well as possible in 2025, so there is a small team still working on this year's car from an aerodynamic point of view. I've had a few lunchtime conversations with that group , talking about the car and what we can do about it," Newey acknowledged in the first public interview given by the team itself.

" I've also spoken extensively with Lance and Fernando , getting their thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of the current car, the correlation between the current car and the driver simulator at the track, and so on, because the drivers are a key part of the feedback loop on how the engineering organization changes and how we approach things."

The recent developments at Imola seemed to offer a qualitative leap forward for the AMR25, although this has yet to be quantified. There will be developments until Barcelona, ​​and it is unknown whether the British team will continue working on the AMR25 until the summer break. However, the audit Newey is conducting on the current car may lead to development suggestions for the coming months . Because not everything is about the CFD tools and the track, as is the case with Williams .

"We've developed a car that hasn't evolved much in the wind tunnel," Carlos Sainz explained on Thursday regarding the dynamics of Williams, a team far behind Aston Martin last year and with the FW47 frozen in the wind tunnel. "We're developing a setup and ideas that undoubtedly give us opportunities to fight for things that no one would have thought of a year ago," the Madrid native explained.

Could Adrian Newey bring a similar dynamic to Aston Martin with the AMR25? Hearing his thoughts and comments would be fascinating, as would accessing his notebook on both the team's methodology and the AMR25's performance. Some would pay a fortune to get a glimpse of those notes from that notebook after the Monaco GP. Who knows if they'll be transferred to the car of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in future races?