AllRacing

Cowell engineering a change in approach at Aston Martin

Nico Hulkenberg’s podium at Silverstone quite rightly grabbed the headlines as the German secured the first top-three finish of his Formula 1 career.

It was a result celebrated by the wider paddock, with even one of Sauber’s rivals in the midfield – Aston Martin – being among the teams that offered up champagne to boost the stocks in the Swiss constructors’ hospitality.

There is a link there, too, with Hulkenberg having made 80 of his 239 starts for the team across its three most recent guises of Force India, Racing Point and Aston Martin, but he left the role of reserve at the end of 2022 to return to racing with Haas.

At that point, there were already big investments being made at Aston, but the new regulations of 2026 were a long way off. And at that stage, it didn’t yet have the Honda works deal in place, let alone its new factory up and running, or Adrian Newey signed as managing technical partner.

A lot has happened at Aston over the past few years that has increased expectations, and yet the results haven’t followed in recent seasons. 2023 started in encouraging style with Fernando Alonso often proving to be the biggest threat to Red Bull and Max Verstappen, but after six podiums in the first eight races, only two more followed as form tailed off.

As recently as after the Monaco Grand Prix, Aston had just 14 points to its name – all of them scored by Lance Stroll – but an updated car has yielded scores in each of the four races since, including the first double points of the year at Silverstone.

Perhaps one of the more unheralded changes at the team has been the influence of Andy Cowell, who was widely credited with the Mercedes power unit dominance in 2014, and added the team principal role to his CEO position at Aston Martin in January. With that came a tweaked outlook to the way the team goes about its work.

“I think it’s more a change of approach and a change of quizzing, asking questions in simple terms,” Cowell tells RACER. “That’s the way I try to approach it. And to not be frightened to ask questions and go deeper and deeper and say, well, why can’t it be science-based? Why can’t we do engineering as, you have a theory, you do an experiment, you look at the results and you’re open-minded?

“So yeah, perhaps it is a different style and what I’m determined is that we do great engineering, and when we’ve done great engineering, then we release information and we don’t release before we’ve done everything thoroughly. I guess that’s the approach I’ve always taken with engineering a power unit before now engineering a race car.

“They’re different disciplines – aerodynamics is different to a power unit, tire engineering is different to a power unit – but you can pull it all the way back to math, physics, a bit of chemistry. It’s the approach of coming up with hardware that’s going to run at a race weekend. And that’s just the same across all aspects of Formula 1.”

One of the reasons that Aston Martin hasn’t cemented its place among the top teams so far has been car development, having failed to capitalize on the position it found itself in at the start of 2023. A lack of consistent improvement when bringing parts to the car was starting to become a concern ahead of what is seen as a major opportunity to run at the front from 2026.

Yet Cowell insists the pressure hasn’t been totally released in terms of current results, placing as much value on the overall championship position – currently still eighth – as the longer-term outlook if the team can get its state-of-the-art new campus operating effectively.

Aston is counting on its new wind tunnel to provide better and faster engineering options. Photo courtesy of Aston Martin Racing.

One of the newest facilities to come online is a big one, with Aston Martin’s own wind tunnel now up and running, and ensuring it doesn’t have to share with Mercedes.

“I think that the benefit is twofold,” Cowell explains. “One is the technology that’s in there – the measurement technology, the precision with which we can measure. And second is the speed with which we can do that work, because we can choose to test in the wind tunnel any day of the week at any time of the day, whereas before we were pegged into a small period of time.

“And so we don’t need to wait for the bus to come along. We can go and do a test when we want, when we’re ready to do so.

“Also, having the aerodynamicists next to model build, and the technology that’s gone into model build design and production and project management, has meant that the time from an aerodynamicist coming up with the shape to getting wind tunnel data is so much quicker. And I know full well that engineers get frustrated if they don’t get results back quickly!

“The more development you can do in a unit of time means that your development rate goes up and that’s how you catch your opponent. So I’m saying many, many times to the people in the campus, the real race is here. It’s the pace with which we can do our development, but thoroughly – don’t cut corners.”

Cowell (at left) is confident the team’s approach will make the most of Newey’s input. Zak Mauger/Images

If facilities are playing a major role in Aston Martin’s optimism for the future, then just as much has to be attributed to one of the names making use of them, after Newey started work earlier this year. It could be seen as unfair to place too much emphasis on one person, but Newey’s track record – 13 drivers’ championships and 12 constructors’ titles across Williams, McLaren and Red Bull – speaks for itself.

“Adrian’s been working exceptionally hard on the architecture of the car,” Cowell says. “He is an enthusiastic, super-focused race car designer. And he knows that there are some deadlines with regards to chassis architecture, transmission architecture, and also Honda with the power unit – so some key deadlines – and he’s been working hard to make sure that we’ve got the best possible sort of fundamentals of the car, which is an exciting journey.

“He’s pushing the boundaries and there’s a lot of excitement and enthusiasm. People would always rather work on something new and different rather than something that’s familiar and safe, so that’s the transition that we’re taking.

“But the equipment we’ve got, the team is relatively new. And so will we do better over time? Yes, we will. But I think that will always be the case.

“We’re pushing exceptionally hard for ’26. But we’re also making sure that we’re thinking medium long term. So what do we do in ’27 as well? If we can’t get something, if it’s not possible to have something for the first race of ’26, well, can we have it for the fifth race or the 10th race? Or does it actually mean it’s ’27? And what do we do in the meantime?

“So there’s a big short-term improvement, but we’re medium- and long-term focused as a team.”

For all of Newey’s brilliance, and all of Lawrence Stroll’s investment, it is still a team game. For Cowell, the key to Aston Martin’s success will be in the way it brings so many different elements together and ensures they seamlessly operate as one, at the highest possible pace. Think 422 Usain Bolts combining in a marathon relay.

“At the end of the day in motorsport, it’s the results on track that really say how well you’re doing, so we can’t say that we’re happy with where we are at the moment,” Cowell admits. “We’re fortunate that we’ve got the physical investment and that’s often what takes the longest period of time. So that’s in place.

“We’ve got an enthusiastic group of people and now it really is just the transformation of the way that we work, the way that we organize ourselves, the way that we trust each other in terms of what our individual responsibilities are. I always prefer the word ‘responsibilities’ to accountability. Accountability sounds like a lawyer’s talking to you.

“Responsibilities are personal. So personally, what are we all going to do each day? And that requires trust that your colleagues are going to do their bit, you’re going to do your bit, and we’re going to pass the baton beautifully, with information. How do we collectively run a marathon by each of us running 100 meters sub 10 seconds? And it’s beautiful baton passes.

“But if one of us drops the baton, we all work together to pick it up and get moving again. And when we do experiments, if they don’t work, we don’t bury the fact it didn’t work – we learn from it. Often, things that don’t go well in engineering exploration teach you as much as when they do go well. And it’s fostering that as an ethos.”

Cowell’s example would lead to a marathon being covered in 67 minutes. That shows the scale of the ambition, and while Aston Martin has a long way to go to even be in the mix for a medal, it’s started showing signs of those baton handovers lowering its lap times.