Horner's painful conclusion: 'Couldn't match Aston Martin's Newey offer'

Red Bull had other plans for Newey

Horner was asked if the unrest at Red Bull at the beginning of this year was the reason for Newey's departure. According to the 50-year-old Briton, Newey was already toying with the idea of leaving the Milton Keynes-based team at the end of 2023. This is what the Red Bull team boss told Motorsport.com.

Initially, the team had other plans for when Newey would step down. "The agreement that we had was at the end of '25 he was going to step back from F1 and really just be a mentor. Otherwise, I was going to lose the other [technical] guys to some rival teams," Horner explained. At the same time, he says he understands that Newey still wanted to continue in Formula 1 and decided to leave the team.

Moreover, according to Horner, Red Bull could not match Aston Martin's offer. "The deal he's got from Aston with equity and so on, is something that quite simply wasn't on the table here. I can understand, Adrian wants another run around the block in F1, and as a shareholder and partner in a team, I certainly don't blame him for that," said the team boss, stressing that the budget cap played a big part in this.

This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton