Aston Martin's new Formula 1 CEO Andy Cowell says he is following a "work experience" package in aerodynamics as he steps out of his usual domain of F1 power units.
Cowell was appointed by Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll as the successor to Martin Whitmarsh as Group CEO, overseeing the British brand's F1 team and its Performance Technologies arm.
The British engineer previously spearheaded Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, becoming the driving force behind the Brixworth plant's successful hybrid power units that dominated F1 at its introduction in 2014.
Cowell left Mercedes and F1 in 2020, but was lured back into the series by Stroll, relishing the prospect of being able to step outside of his comfort zone by overseeing the entire F1 team rather than returning to an engine-related role.
As part of getting up to speed at Aston Martin, Cowell says the Silverstone-based team's engineers put together an aerodynamics crash course to better understand what the aero department needs from the rest of the organisation.
"To be on the team side rather than on the power unit side brings me back to something that I loved, and I enjoyed for decades with a different challenge," Cowell explained. "It's a different set of technical challenges.
"One of the first people I spoke to in my early days at the factory was [technical director] Dan Fallows and I said to Dan: 'I know that aerodynamicists want lots of power from the engine, no heat rejection, no aero blockage, I know all that, but what else does an aerodynamicist want?' And so he put together a work experience package for me.
"I spent time with all the principal aerodynamicists, I watched some runs at the wind tunnel, spent time with the aero performance group that were measuring the pressure tappings at Singapore and then working out how that ties in with aero data and CFD.
"So, I guess I'm now wearing a bobble hat called an aerodynamicist but it's a work experience compared with a bobble hat of a power unit person. I think it's good to do something different."
Cowell will manage a star-studded line-up of engineers at the group's F1 team, with former Red Bull man Fallows soon joined by Ferrari's technical director Enrico Cardile and legendary designer Adrian Newey, who joins from Red Bull in March 2025. When asked how he will manage that high-profile array of engineering talent, Cowell said the team's situation is not too different from Mercedes' dominant run that started in 2014.
"I remember Mercedes Grand Prix pulling together a gaggle of impressive technical directors and it working out okay on that run into 2014," Cowell said. "We're quite a young organisation, operating with that level of facility and resources. There are lots of things to do, whether it's setting up our own wind tunnel and all the facilities that are required to do that, whether it's making a gearbox to go on the back of the Honda power unit for 2026, simulation tools, getting those to be class leading.
"And if you've got senior leaders that can each take one of those big challenges and focus on it, then we'll get to the front quicker.
"What I want to do is make the organisational changes that I think will help all of us going forward, so that there's not only office space and a desk and a chair and a drawing board ready, but there's also a structure that's got their name in it. So my ambition is that [Cardile's and Newey's] very first day in the factory is a working day, not a reflecting and making change day. I see that as my role as the CEO."
