Adrian Newey will be leaving Red Bull Racing in the first quarter of 2025. Newey will be free to move to another team immediately if he wishes. Former colleague of Newey, Mark Preston, shared with OLBG his opinion on where Newey could go next, and what the key driving factors for his decision could be.
At the start of May, Newey announced that he would be leaving Red Bull after 19 years with the team. During his time with the team, the Chief Technical Officer has won seven Drivers' Championships and six Constructors'. Although Newey has not confirmed where he could be going next, he has hinted at taking some brief time away from the sport.
Nevertheless, it seems there are a few key components which could influence where Newey could go upon his return to F1. "Where he ends up will be all about the package that they have to offer, the main five areas being the engine, tyres, drivers, resources and the people. More than one of the top teams have a lot of the pieces of the puzzle which is going to make his next move a very hard decision, there's probably something else in the background that'll meet some of the incentives that he's looking for," Preston said.
Preston and Newrey worked together in F1, and the two designers were part of McLaren. In 2002, the 55-year-old Australian was promoted to Head of Vehicle Technology Laboratories, and he oversaw the development of the radical 2003 McLaren MP4-18A alongside Newey, who was Technical director.
Ferrari have all the pieces of the puzzle
Since the announcement, Newey has been heavily linked to a range of F1 teams including Ferrari, Aston Martin and Williams. Ferrari have been branded as the most likley contender, with Preston adding: "Ferrari have many pieces of the puzzle when it comes to attracting Adrian Newey, they have the best drivers and Lewis Hamilton is obviously a big draw. They have a great engine programme, a great team principal and a lot of good engineers, if Adrian and Lewis do link up that would attract the top engineering talent. So Ferrari certainly have all the pieces of the puzzle to pull everything together, it will be fascinating to see how it all plays out."
However, he is also certain that the drivers could influence Newey's decision, particularly as Newey has alluded to his desire to work with Hamilton or Fernando Alonso in the past: "If you get the best drivers it's more motivation and incentive for the best engineers to come and join. That attracts the best people, best race engineers, best sponsors, everything. It's a snowball effect and drivers are one of the key elements," Preston concluded.
It's a big risk for Newey. Yes, LH was an extremely fast driver over his career. Generally beating his teammates as he went along. But these days he seems to be pulling the shorter straw when he comes up against his teammate. Newey will only have a real impact at Ferrari in 2026, if he even goes. Is there enough left in the LH tank to make Newey's career even more impressive, or is LH losing that extra millisecond that made him great...and how will it look come 2026?
Leclerc's driving style is similar to Max but he's error prone. It'll be interesting to see how Hamilton fares against Leclerc in a pointy car with or without Newey.
Morning D2, yes I agree LeC is error prone, I always get the feeling they happen when he goes wheel to wheel, it doesn't seem to be his happy place, I wonder if Ferrari look on that as a chink in his armour hence the signing of LH, as you say I look forward to see how they stack up against each other, my own view is that LeC will very often out-qually LH but may well come up short on race craft
So no news but still desperate for some clickable content? Write something about Newey, doesn't have to be true just vague
The winter break will be full of similar 'articles' regarding Newey. I think 1 or perhaps 2 per week.
I think you may have underplayed that ibo, only once or twice a week ?!! Only if Horner doesn't try 'knocking boots' with another employee to give us the headlines ??
True me good man. I've always been a conservative person. I see there is yet another article today.
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