Jonathan Wheatley: Aston Martin is targeting Audi’s F1 boss for a key role for the team under Adrian Newey

Stroll has signed Newey on a contract that could be worth up to £30m a year – including all possible bonuses and add-ons – in the hope he will be the final piece in the puzzle that has turned the team into winners.

But Aston Martin finished last in the World Championship after a disastrous start to the season.

The car is not competitive yet. Newey’s arrival in March last year, coupled with problems with the new wind tunnel, delayed its development, but the 67-year-old is confident the structure can be made competitive over the course of this season.

The biggest problem is the Honda engine, which has suffered from major reliability issues and suffers from a lack of power and energy recovery.

The engine was subjected to vibrations that caused the batteries to fail in pre-season testing, leaving the team severely short of parts for the first two races of the season.

An alternative solution was found to isolate the batteries from vibrations, which allowed the car to operate for a longer period. But the vibrations are still transmitted to the chassis and to the drivers’ hands.

Fernando Alonso was withdrawn from last Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix because vibrations caused too much discomfort.

“I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish the race anyway,” Alonso said. “The vibration level was very high today. At one point, from lap 20 to 35, I was struggling a little bit to feel my hands and feet. We were one lap down, we were in last place. There was probably no point in continuing.”

Honda admitted that it does not yet know the source of the vibrations.

The hybrid engine lacks power from the internal combustion engine, and its electrical elements are unable to operate at its full 350 kW power.

Alonso has jumped from 17th on the grid to 10th at the end of the first lap in both races so far this season, but has fallen back down the field because he cannot defend against cars with more power and recover and deploy electrical energy.

Wheatley and former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto worked in a dual leadership role, with Binotto primarily supervising the engine and chassis plants in Germany and Switzerland and Wheatley in charge of the race team.

Wheatley’s expected departure amounts to the third management restructuring at Audi F1 in less than two years.

Last time around, Binotto’s title was changed to Head of the Audi F1 Project from Chief Operating Officer and Technical Officer and then CEO Adam Becker left the company.