Aston Martin sign Adrian Newey's ex-Red Bull ally to boost key F1 weakness

Aston Martin have convinced a former Red Bull engineer and colleague of Adrian Newey to return to F1.

Giles Wood has been recruited by Aston Martin to bolster their simulation tools at their Silverstone headquarters, Crash.net has learned.

Wood worked alongside Newey in a similar capacity at Red Bull during a seven-year spell with the Milton Keynes side, playing a key role in the team’s run of sustained world title success with Sebastian Vettel between 2010 and 2013.

Following a spell at Red Bull Advanced Technologies from 2014 until 2017, Wood left F1 altogether to work with Apple on autonomous technologies in California.

But he has been lured back to F1 by Aston Martin, where he will be reunited with legendary car designer Newey.

Aston Martin have also recruited Gioacchino Vino as their new chief aerodynamicist following his exit from Mercedes.

Vino worked for Toyota and Red Bull before joining Mercedes in 2012.

Aston Martin’s biggest weakness

Newey admitted during his first appearance in green at the Monaco Grand Prix that Aston Martin’s simulator correlation was the biggest area for improvement.

“I think it is fair to say that some of our tools are weak, particularly the driver in the loop simulator,” Newey said. 

"It needs a lot of work because it's not correlating at all at the moment, which is a fundamental research tool. Not having that is a limitation.

“But we've just got to work around it in the meantime and then sort out a plan to get it to where it needs to be. But that's probably a two-year project in truth.”

In landing Wood’s signature, Aston Martin have clearly acted upon Newey’s early influence and guidance.