Adrian Newey insists gets "an unfairly bad rap" from his critics. The new car design chief leapt to the defence of the Canadian racer as he faced reporters at the first race weekend he has attended in person with his new team.

Newey started work at Aston Martin in March, having joined from in a high-profile switch last year. The 66-year-old has designed more than a dozen title-winning F1 cars and the Silverstone-based squad hope he can sprinkle some of that magic on them in the future.

But for now he is still settling in. And his presence on the ground at the this weekend is a purely observational mission for Newey, giving him the chance to see how the team works trackside and getting used to his new surroundings.

While in the principality, he has also spoken to the media and used the opportunity to speak highly of 26-year-old racer Stroll, who is the son of the team's billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll. "Lance, I think, has an unfairly bad rap," said Newey.

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"When you compare him against team-mates he's been up against – Checo [Sergio Perez], Nico Hulkenberg, Sebastian [Vettel] and now Fernando [Alonso] – then he's been right there.

"Any driver who gets to Formula 1 is clearly very good, but I think Lance is much better than people give him credit for." Newey went on to make it clear he is also a huge fan of two-time F1 champion , who he is delighted to be working with having previously voiced his regret that they had never been allies on the grid.

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Newey added: "Fernando, he's such a cool character. He's been an enemy for many years, along with Lewis [Hamilton]. I think I've said before that you can only work with so many drivers.

"But two drivers I always wanted – the brothers from the modern era that I felt I would enjoy working with – were Lewis and Fernando, and I couldn't work with both, so at least I've got one of them."

Newey was referring to the choice that he was faced with after announcing that he was going to leave Red Bull. Retirement was a possibility but he quickly came to the conclusion that he had another project in him and there was no shortage of suitors interested in luring the celebrated designer.

But the two front-runners were Aston Martin and . Clearly, the former won that duel, despite a personal plea from who publicly declared how much he wanted Newey to make the move with him to Italy.