Alonso World Champion at 45? Clear Adrian Newey Red Bull parallel spotted

With Adrian Newey casting his eye to the F1 2026 regulatory reset at Aston Martin, could history be about to repeat itself?

That is the question pondered by F1 pundit Karun Chandhok, who sees the potential for Newey with Aston Martin to repeat his vital contribution to Red Bull.

Alonso and Newey to write ‘great story’ at Aston Martin?

After designing title-winning cars for Williams and McLaren, Newey arrived at Red Bull in 2006, and by 2009, they had developed into a race-winning outfit. The following year, Red Bull began their streak of four consecutive Drivers’ and Constructors’ title double wins.

A further four Drivers’ and two Constructors’ crowns have come the way of Red Bull since, but with Newey now embarking on a fresh F1 career chapter, as he prepares to join Aston Martin as their managing technical partner from March, his first key mission is to ready Aston Martin for the new era from F1 2026.

At that stage, new chassis and power unit regulations will come into effect, representing a major opportunity for teams like Aston Martin – which slipped into the midfield in a challenging F1 2024 campaign – to take a giant stride forward and compete at the sharp end of the grid.

A bit like Red Bull in 2009, perhaps?

“I think it is important to factor in that we have a big rules change coming. In 2026, the rule book is being torn up, there’s a whole new set of rules coming and that creates opportunity,” Chandhok began on the evo India podcast.

“If you rewind to the time when Adrian moved to Red Bull, they were a midfield team. They got a couple of podiums here and there, but they were sort of in the midfield. But he very much focused on 2009, which was a new rule change. He sort of got involved in 2007 and 2008, but focus really on 2009.

“2007 and 2008 was about setting up the structure for 2009, and 2009, they got caught out with a loophole, the double diffuser for Brawn, otherwise they had the best car in the second half of the year. Then, from 2010 to 2013, they won the four championships.

“In a similar way, there’s opportunity in 2026, if he can spend 2025 creating the structure and building the team up. With the new rules in 2026, we could see a change quickly.”

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Aston Martin has a multi-time World Champion in their ranks in the form of Fernando Alonso, who now at the age of 43, has continued to show that age is just a number.

The Spaniard is contracted at Aston Martin until the end of F1 2026, and as Newey ticks a key driver off his bucket list by working with Alonso at long last, could a title-winning alliance be brewing?

“Wouldn’t it be amazing if you saw a 44 or 45-year-old Fernando Alonso winning the championship in an Adrian Newey car?” Chandhok added. “What a story that would be.”

Teams were in the clear to work on their F1 2026 creations as of the new year, and Newey’s manager, the former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan, recently revealed when Newey will begin design work on the Aston Martin AMR26.

“Fifth, sixth of March,” Jordan confirmed on the Formula For Success podcast, when co-star David Coulthard – a winner of 13 grands prix – asked when Newey will “first put a pencil on a piece of Aston Martin paper and start that design process?”

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