Enrico Cardile: Aston Martin’s 2026 ambitions + working with Adrian Newey

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2:10Every person in Formula One is chasing wins. and 2026 F1's new era brings big opportunities for teams like Aston Martin. I'm not good on celebrating so I will be massively satisfied for five minutes because then is okay what next what next what next that is my nature. I need the targets I need the journey to the target.

2:44This is F1 Beyond the Grid. I'm Tom Clarkson.

2:51Enrico Cardillo's journey began in Italy. His target was never Formula 1, but after working on Ferrari road cars, he moved to the F1 team and to single-seaters that took Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Charles Leclerc to race wins. So what drove an Italian Formula One engineer to move away from Italy and away from Ferrari? Well, a new target, helping Aston Martin to become F1 winners. Enrico is Aston's chief technical officer. He joined midway through 2025 and his focus is developing the car for the new technical rules in 2026. and he's not the only person to leave a team with a full trophy cabinet to join one hoping to fill theirs up.

3:38In the office next door to Enrico is Adrian Newey, now also in Aston Green. Enrico tells me about working alongside Adrian at Aston's state-of-the-art factory at Silverstone and what Lance Stroll has in common with Raikkonen and how feedback from him and Fernando Alonso is driving the team forward. Aston Martin are gearing up for a huge opportunity and Enrico is right at the heart of things.

4:10Enrico, it's lovely to see you again. How are you, first of all? I'm very fine. Very good, very good. Thank you. Now, how are you enjoying life at Aston Martin and in England? Actually, I'm enjoying both of them. In Aston Martin, I'm very excited. It's amazing. I embraced a huge challenge. There is a lot of stuff to do, but it's the opportunity to shape a team. And the exciting stuff is that we have all what we need, including the commitment of the owner for getting our final results, which is winning. So this is very exciting and encouraging, even if there is a lot of stuff to do. I surprisingly love living in the UK.

5:02I love people. perhaps the weather is not as good as in Italy but people are very warm very inclusive there is in the place where I live in small villages there is a great sense of community which is absolutely lovely. Is this your first experience of living outside of Italy? It is definitely it is. I'm also fascinated because of course you've come from Ferrari the Ferrari Italian way of doing Formula One versus the British garagiste way of doing Formula One. Is there a big difference? Have you noticed that? There is a difference. I can feel a difference. It would be unfair now to give more details because on one hand, Ferrari is a very established company with processes, with everything already in place.

5:58Here in Aston Martin, we are working for getting there, shaping our processes, developing our new tools because wind tunnel, we are using our brand new wind tunnel since, I guess, March this year. There is a lot to do before extracting the full potential of our tools. Other stuff needs to be improved and so on. But definitely it's different the way Italians think compared to the way of tackling problems by an English person. Enrico, it's so interesting. I had Fred Vasseur, the team principal of Ferrari, on the show recently and he was saying that the passion of Italians is both a great strength but also a great weakness of Ferrari.

6:51and his job as the team principal there is to try and sort of keep people more level, not too happy when things go well, not too sad when things go badly. Is that something you think happens in the UK? Is there not less passion, but are people more level in their approach to success and failure? Here people are definitely less emotional and this is a strength. is a characteristic I like very much. You know, then sometimes one thing is a passion for what you are doing, how much driven you are. The other stuff is how emotional you became when you have a problem, you are under pressure. In this respect, people here are less emotional.

7:43They stay calm when the pressure rises and not, you know, losing the focus to the target. Tell us a little bit more about Aston. You said a minute ago that, you know, you've got great facilities here. You talked about the wind tunnel. You're an aerodynamicist by trade. How has tech come on when it comes to wind tunnel? You know, this one was opened, I think, around the time of the Australian Grand Prix earlier this year, wasn't it? Is this the benchmark in terms of wind tunnels in Formula One now? I guess definitely yes. It's a brand new wind tunnel with a state of the art of the technology available inside.

8:30It's a very complex machine. We are not definitely exploiting yet the full potential of this facility. So we have a clear roadmap. we are following for getting the best we can out of it. Why is it difficult to exploit one of these tunnels to its full potential? One of the aspects which evolved the most in those years in a wind tunnel is all the technology for visualizing the flow, which is a key aspect on developing an F1 car because an f1 car development is based on managing the flow around the car so to have a neurodynamicist in the position of seeing what's going on in cfd first and wind tunnel after for correlation is a key aspect for understanding the problem and then boosting as a consequence the performance.

9:35And to set up all these kind of devices takes a bit of time, especially being brand new and not having people which already worked on this kind of stuff. Is it a 100 % wind tunnel? It's a 100 % wind tunnel, but, you know, by regulation, we are not allowed to test models greater than 60%. Just out of interest, how much more accurate could you be with a life-size model rather than 60 % model? Could you be 40 % more accurate? Is it as simple as that? There are pros and cons. The development on a full-scale model will be massively more expensive and perhaps it It will take even also more time for changing parts, producing parts, manufacturing parts.

10:30So all in all, perhaps 60 % is a good compromise for carry-on development with all the runs allowed by FIA. Let's throw it forward in the context of aerodynamics to 2026. What are the biggest challenges of the new rules coming in next year? In general, the new regulations are a big departure in many aspects because it's not changing just the aero, but it's changing also the minimum weight. It will be a huge challenge compared to what it used to be in the past. Power unit that will be brand new with a new fuel. So there are a lot of things which are changing, making the exercise interesting. Will the floor be as influential next year as it currently is in 2025?

11:32At the end of the day, an F1 car generates most of its load with the floor. The 2026 car in general will generate less downforce than the current generation of car. but the floor will remain a key aspect on developing the air of the car. What about movable aerodynamics? I don't yet fully understand what that means. Can you explain how it's going to work next year? But it's down to the nature of the 26 regulations where the electrical power has been increased but the ability of the car to recovering energy has been decreased. So from there, the need of spending less time possible down the straights.

12:25As a consequence, the DRS effect has been increased in a way that has been needed to add also front device for balancing the car with the spirit of being as quick as possible down the straight to not spend time there where we consume electrical power. This is the nature of what we are doing. I would say it's nothing really special. As usual, it's more working for getting the load needed in corners and then checking that the car behavior in straight line mode, SLM mode, will be right. Enrico, is your job full 2026 or are you looking at the 25 car still, you personally? Me personally, I would say 90 % focus on the 26 car.

13:23Then I used to attend a mission control here in the campus, all the races, because, you know, following the races, the preparation and so on is a way for better understanding people, understanding which are our tools, which level they are. If we are missing something, which are the strengths and the weakness of what we are doing. So basically, the development is only 2026. I spend time also looking after the 2025 car. And how is development going? Do you see the 26 regs as a bigger departure than 2022? It's a departure. It's definitely a departure. Then every time you talk on new regulations, I mean, I had the same feeling, I remember, in 2021 with the new regulations coming, which compared to the previous one, they seem to be oversimplified, extremely restrictive.

14:27Then when you start working on them, you find that, okay, they are restrictive, but actually you have also room for being creative, for finding new solutions, for getting load out of the development. So basically I'm feeling the same. When we started looking at them, okay, they are a bit sad, they are over-constrained, but then actually working on them, you find a degree of freedom for, you know, developing the car. And is progress linear or is it quite a bumpy road where you make progress and then you stall for a bit and then you have a breakthrough where you suddenly find? It's a bit, you know, you have months where it's pretty much linear, then you can struggle for a few weeks, then you find, you know, it's a new concept which unlocks the area and so on.

15:21I read a really interesting article recently in which Brembo, the brake manufacturer, was saying they're getting differing information from the teams. Does that mean, do you think, we're going to see lots of different solutions next year? Do you think the cars might look quite different? I guess so. Again, like happened in 2022, if you like, perhaps they are expecting a bit more convergence straight out of the box, which has not been the case. I guess in 2026, we could assist with something very similar with more concepts across the grid. Yeah, I'm expecting this. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Jewel Osco.

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17:02can we talk about honda now obviously you've worked with ferrari you're working with mercedes now this year at aston martin what can you tell us about honda and how much interaction have you had with them personally since i joined i'm focusing my attention on the chassis so just marginally I'm seeing what Honda is doing. For what I see, I am surprised by the commitment and the aggressive approach they have. They are very open on collaborating, on satisfying the request we have chassis side. So, but my focus is so far is completely, I would say, on the chassis development rather than the power unit.

17:54But isn't it interesting how you're going to have just two cars with Honda Power next year? And I suppose one side of it says that's only two cars worth of data, particularly early on. But equally, Honda only have to focus on Aston Martin in terms of what your requests are. So there are positives and negatives, aren't there? Yes, I like more the positive side of this period because on one hand during the development they're just following trying to satisfy our request so we don't they don't need to find any compromise with different requests on one hand on the other hand i guess they can push a bit more on development because having to provide power unit just to one team the quantities are lower than having multiple team this i i guess is allowing them to push more for the development sakura in japan where the engines are designed and built i don't know if you've had a chance to go yet i know andy cowell yeah has been there recently hasn't he but i've been there once it is the most phenomenal place i think i've ever been i was taken up onto the into the design office and it is so long that i couldn't see the far wall well it's just all on formula one this was back in the sort of bar honda days so it may have changed a bit but it's an extraordinary facility and when you combine what they have in japan with what aston has here at silverstone and how well thought out this factory is it's it's the coming together of two certainly two great facilities now look i mentioned um andy cowell there he's obviously the team principal now uh he ran uh hpp at mercedes he was the bane of your life for many years as was as was adrian newey of course yes uh two phenomenal engineers i know there's a lot of talent here but can we just focus on these two guys in particular starting with andy it's early days in in your relationship i understand that but what are your first impressions of Andy?

20:06I mean, absolutely positive because it's a very pleasure to work with him. He's a very structural engineer. He's very disciplined on respecting process, creating process. He's very open. He's a person you can absolutely talk with. You can, you know, compare your ideas with his ideas is open it's absolutely open and he's pushing he's very demanding with the organization but which is absolutely right somehow he's inspiring and he's driving the change we are working on he's interesting too because yes he's an engine man but he started his career with reynard so if you want to you could say you're you're a chassis man at heart andy at a certain point yeah he had to decide if uh to be a chassis man or a power unit man i went for the power unit i mean looking at the results it was a good shout yeah it is very well what what then about adrian new you're a um a chassis man he's a chassis man can you explain to us first of all how the relationship works in terms of what you look after and what Adrian looks after?

21:32Adrian is definitely the engine moving the development of the car. Our offices are one next to the other. I'm working basically on making sure that understanding where Adrian want to go, make sure that he will have all the information, best quality of information needed while developing all the process around for making doable all the challenges he gives to the organization. Do you still use a drawing board? He does. Of course. No, me, no. No, no, not so good. Different generation. Let's put it this way. He told me once he tried to get his head around CAD systems and he just finds it easier to use the drawing board.

22:32My perspective is amazing how we can think in 3D and then releasing design in 2D. So it means that his ability is enormous. When you think of his ability, is it the fact that he can visualize the whole car? Is that the standout quality of Adrian Neu? Yeah, Adrian is a mix of two things that are making him unique. Because on one hand, there is a very, very bright, outstanding engineer. And a very bright mind. On the other hand, there is a long experience done when F1 team were made by just a few people and the technology to support the development was not as much as we have now. So he developed his career with the technology available for developing the car, being all the time on top of this technology.

23:48Having worked with him for a few months now, can you understand why he has those 13 driver's titles and 12 constructors? Of course. Talking with him is like talking, you know, a modern F1 team is like talking with at the same time the chief designer, the vehicle dynamics expert, the chief aero. You know, in just one person, you find so many different skills, which is unique. Is there one particular thing that you've learned of Adrian? If I have to mention one is how uncompromised he is, how driven he is for achieving his goal without doing any compromise anywhere, pushing all the stuff regardless of the magnitude to the perfection.

24:44just explain what you mean by that so what he will come up with an idea that on paper looks impossible to achieve and then you just work out together with the rest of the team how you turn that into reality but it's more than this because when he releases something he has already in mind how to achieve it so if someone in the organization should struggle for achieving it is supportive on providing all the details needed for what he has in mind for make it doable he's able to work at a very high level but then when needed he can dive deep down on the details for the feasibility what a fascinating man he is now look can we discuss now just the design process when you're designing a car to a new set of regulations which is what's happening now what's the first bit you look at every time you start with the iron mind reading the regulations guessing which is the best architecture you can design for promoting and boosting the development of the car.

26:07And do you get ideas from outside of Formula 1? Do you look at the aeroplane industry for inspiration, for example? Not for the development, I would say. I mean, we look outside the F1 eventually for the technology available, technology for manufacturing, technology for software or stuff like this, but not definitely for the aerodevelopment also because we have the opposite target. We hope to squash more than anybody else the car to the ground. No lift. Please no lift. Are fast cars invariably beautiful cars? Perhaps. To me, a car is nicer only if it's quicker. So I cannot. When I look at the car before being presented, of course, it's a product of your work.

27:05I like it when I see the first time the car all together, but all the time this question mark will be quicker. If it's quicker, definitely for a little over. if not he's you know he's kind of your son but not the the favorite one enrico can we have a look now at your career path your journey to where you are today so let's wind the clock back sort of 25 years ish it feels from the outside looking in that you were always destined to start your career in Maranello at Ferrari. Your university thesis was on the Ferrari wind tunnel, wasn't it? Just how much time did you spend in Maranello during your university years?

27:52During the university, not much. I went to Maranello for, I would say, three weeks in total. Two of them were the wind tunnel session. I had the luxury to have the wind tunnel available. One of the, at that time, Ferrari's wind tunnel available for a couple of weeks and then I would say a few other days for preparing the session discussing results and so on so actually I would say three to four weeks at that time but then I had the opportunity to stay there for 20 years. Got your feet under the table but when you were there doing your your thesis did they give you access to any of the F1 information?

28:34Were you able to speak to any of the aerodynamicists working on the F1 car? No, because at the time since I left, students were not involved in the development of the car. And in my case, the thesis was for the road car division, not for the F1. You then get a job in the GT division at Ferrari. Just describe what that was like and the sort of projects you were working on. I spent a lot of life working on road cars. When I started in 2004, my work was around the cooling system, the thermal management, I would say, of the car. So nothing related to aerodynamics, but was just sizing radiators, heat exchangers, heat shields.

29:31I mean, I was in charge of making sure that apart the passengers, all the rest, the temperature of the rest was under control. The interesting stuff was that at that time, Ferrari was all in all a small company. So I had the opportunity to do this job across all the cars in Ferrari. And then after a couple of years, I started to add more responsibilities. I started to work on Aero just, I guess, a couple of years after in 2006 and stuff like that. And then progressively I kept adding other performances to my remit. All the time I crossed all the Ferrari cars, which was extremely exciting. What a privilege to work on.

30:19Absolutely. Absolutely a privilege. And then when was your first brush with the competition side of the business? the first time i touched uh competition was with aero i would say 2006 or 7 because the at that time the gt2 cars were not developed by the f1 team the f1 team was focused only on the f1 car all the other track activities of Ferrari were carried out by the GT division. So the first car I worked a bit was the 430 GT2. Then I did the 458 GT2 or GT, I don't remember the name, and I changed it so many times, which was you know perhaps the very first contact with the motorsport the 458 did you ever go to with that car yes yes yeah i did it's something completely different no because the most striking stuff for me has always been the change in balance between quality and race no because as being competitive I'm prone to give a lot of importance to quality because quality is the max performance of the car.

31:48It's where you may really measure your job. Then of course you don't score points during the quality so you need to do enough good job during the race for scoring points. On the 24 hours it's completely different if you like. It's much less relevant where you are in quality because everything can happen. Something is under your control. Something else, you must be prepared on reacting to unknown. It's an extremely fascinating world. Did you sleep? Not a lot. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Jewel Osco. Earn four times the points on your favorite brands now through July 28th on eligible items like Pantene moisturizing shampoo, Gillette razors and refills, secret clinical strength deodorant, herbal essences hair care, old spice deodorant, Pampers swaddlers diapers, and Crest clean breath toothpaste.

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33:06so you then get the nod to go to the f1 division in in 2016 tell us how that opportunity came about it happened that at a certain point in 2016 june july i've been called for a chat with sergio marchion not even knowing for which reason marchion wanted to talk with me and so i had this a one-hour conversation with him but without exactly knowing what he was supposed to say. He asked about many different stuff. What do you think about this guy? What do you think about the other guy? What do you think about F1? Why do you think they are not winning? Stuff like this. I went out after one hour without having exactly understood the reason why.

33:57I discovered just a few days after that my future he decided that my future would have been in f1 and from that i mean from a day to another i moved to f1 were you looking to join the f1 division not not not really i i mean i there was my dream when i decided to study aerospace engineering I did the studies for understanding the reason why or the shapes of an F1 car but then I started to work on road cars I developed my career there I would never thought that after so many years I would have the opportunity to move to F1 in an important role this has been you know really shocking Marc Chione was a formidable figure, wasn't he?

34:48Was he intimidating to talk to? It was challenging. It was definitely challenging because he used to ask for simple questions requiring very, I mean, at the end, simple answers, but after a complex process of thinking exactly what the right answer would have been. So in this respect, it was extremely challenging. It was a demanding man, extremely straight and sharp. I never felt intimidated by Marchionne, but perhaps that's just me. Of course, he was running Ferrari back then. Are there any parallels between him and what Lawrence Stroll is doing here at Aston Martin? Of course, there are many.