'Mercedes tried to entice Red Bull's Newey to switch'
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- GPblog.com
Mercedes has once again missed the mark this season with the W14. The German racetrack is not competitive pleasure and years of dominance in Formula 1, Toto Wolff 's team is already happy to grab a sporadic podium finish. According to F1-Insider, Mercedes recently tried to entice Adrian Newey from rival Red Bull Racing to make a switch.
Newey had an expiring contract at the Austrian racing stable of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. In principle, the top designer could have signed wherever he wanted for 2024 and beyond, but the 64-year-old Briton opted for a longer stay. Until and including which season Newey is now tied up is unknown, but Helmut Marko expressed hope that his colleague will remain linked to Red Bull until his retirement.
Newey was reportedly called by a former Red Bull employee just before he signed a new commitment. This employee would now be one of Toto Wolff's personal assistants. Newey, however, refused. The aforementioned German medium spoke to Marko about it: "It seems that Mr Wolff does not quite have the confidence after all that his own people can deal with the problems with their car," was the Red Bull adviser's witty response.
Mercedes is going to do things differently
A reorganisation has taken place at Mercedes over a number of weeks. James Allison and Mike Elliott swapped jobs as their qualities would be "better showcased" this way. Without Newey's help, Mercedes will now have to find its way up.