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Was Newey ever on Toto Wolff's radar? Mercedes explain
The two Mercedes drivers finished in P3 and P9 in Azerbaijan with a bit of luck after an enormous crash between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez. The German team got a large amount of points compared to what they expected, in the week after Adrian Newey and Aston Martin announced their partnership. In Baku, Toto Wolff was asked the question, was ever signing Adrian Newey to the team was an option for his team?
Mercedes CEO and team principal Wolff had nothing but praise for Newey's previous achievements. "I think the track record that Adrian has in Formula One speaks for itself. He's a great, great designer, the greatest designer in Formula One when you look at the stats. And if you combine it with someone like Andy Cowell (group chief technical officer at Aston Martin), who is, for me, one of the strongest leaders I've ever met in any industry, and they can make that work, I think it's a package to be reckoned with," he said rating their rivals signing the successful designer to GPblog among others.
According to Wolff, it is great that more teams could be competing for greater results. "It's good. The more teams are competitive in the front. You look at the race today from a fan standpoint. I wish we would have played there in the front, but it's marvellous. You're having four drivers now that race for a Driver World Championship as it stands, and McLaren has taken the lead in the Constructors today. Who would have ever thought that five months ago? So if a team like Aston Martin, with this great name, can be part of the of the leading group, it would be fantastic," the Austrian explained.
Newey on Mercedes' radar?
Wolff declared they chose against signing the Briton, who was announced to leave Red Bull Racing at the Miami Grand Prix. "I think every team gave it a thought. James [Allison, Mercedes' technical director] and I discussed it, elaborated about it and came to the conclusion that the structure we have today is the one that we have faith in, that we want to continue."
"But having said that, both of us have great respect for Newey. But we passed on that one because we believe in our team at that stage," he concluded about the matter.
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