With the World Cup very well on track in favor of Max Verstappen and the shake-up in the technical regulations that will enter the scene in less than two years, the name of Adrian Newey is on the lips of the majority of the inhabitants of the paddock of Formula 1 installed in Miami, where this weekend the fifth stop on the calendar takes place. On Wednesday, Red Bull confirmed the departure from the team of Adrian Newey, its technical director and one of the most influential figures in the championship in the last three decades.
The engineer will leave his position in March 2025, at which time he will be completely free to join any team on the grid. The mere possibility of having this aerodynamics wizard with a view to the new era of single-seaters that will hit the track in 2026, has motivated Aston Martin to offer him a fortune, Williams has met with him and many assume that Ferrari is preparing to make room for it. Lewis Hamilton himself put Newey’s name at the top of the list of people with whom he would like to meet in the final years of his career in the competition. “If I had to make a list of people I would like to work with, Adrian, without a doubt, would be in first place,” agreed Hamilton, who will wear red next year, replacing Carlos Sainz.
Before the multi-time British champion approached him, Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin’s main shareholder, met with him to offer him the keys to the green racing car project, as well as an obscene amount of money. “I always wanted to work with him. I respect him a lot. I consider him probably the best engineer that F1 has ever produced; a legend. In a way, I feel privileged to have met him,” commented Fernando Alonso, who in his day, when he was wearing the Ferrari suit (2013), went so far as to say that he was not competing for the crown against Sebastian Vettel, but that he was against “Newey’s design.”
From Miami, James Vowles, director of Williams, also acknowledged having sat down with Newey on Friday of last week. “We are talking about an icon of our sport. It would be remiss of me not to talk to him,” said Vowles, the person in charge of leading the resurgence of the Grove structure, which experienced its golden age, in the early 90s, with Newey on board. “Since he left Williams, every team he has gone to has fought for the championship. That is not a coincidence, but the impact it has on the sport,” added the Felbridge coach.
The unknown surrounding Newey’s future is almost as big as the influence his departure from Red Bull will have. There are many who believe that his goodbye is nothing more than a reflection of the chaos that has settled in the red buffalo team, immersed in a power struggle and divided into two sides. On paper, the Colchester engineer’s slamming of the door weakens the flank on which Christian Horner, the director, also finds himself. Nobody knows what impact this movement will have on the troops in Milton Keynes (Great Britain), on the design of the next cars, nor on Verstappen’s short-term future. What is clear is that there are those, like Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ top executive, who are rubbing their hands together and who are willing to do everything imaginable to steal Red Bull’s flagship.
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