F1 | Newey delays retirement: ‘I’ll take a vacation, but I’ll probably come back’

Adrian Newey will leave Red Bull after a highly successful 18-year period in which he designed the cars that led Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen to multiple F1 World Championship victories.

But amid political turmoil at Red Bull, an investigation into Christian Horner that was dropped and “a whole host of other reasons”, Newey has decided to leave the Milton Keynes team, shifting his focus to completing the RB17 hypercar which will be presented at the Goodwood Festival of Speed ​​in July.

Newey, who has been heavily linked with a role at Ferrari as teams prepare the groundwork for crucial 2026 regulation changes, has negotiated a deal allowing him to join a competing team in March 2025.

Speaking to Eddie Jordan at an Oyster Yachts event at last week’s Historic Monaco Grand Prix, he gave the firmest indication yet that he is not done with F1 yet.

“If you would have asked me 15 years ago if at 65 I would consider changing teams, going somewhere else and doing another four or five years, I would have told you that you are absolutely crazy,” Newey said.

But then he explained that he saw how his own father “lost his mojo a little bit” when he retired at the same age as Newey.

He has also drawn inspiration – and advice – from former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, still very active in his 90s, and from IndyCar owner Roger Penske, who at age 87 is the most powerful figure in American racing.

“I asked them both, ‘What’s your secret?’ Because they kept going, and for their age they are phenomenally agile mentally and physically,” Newey revealed.

“They both said that the brain is like a muscle, it needs exercise and therefore you have to keep working it.”

“Also, from the age of eight or ten I wanted to work in motor racing as a designer. I was lucky enough to realize this ambition, get the first job and have been working in racing ever since. So every day was just a bonus, I really love what I do.”

“I think I’ll take a little vacation. I’m feeling a little tired at the moment. But sooner or later I’ll probably come back.”

Newey expressed regret that news of his departure was released on the 30th anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s fatal crash at Imola, in a Williams he designed, and was taken by surprise by the scale of the news.

Adrian Newey, Chief Technology Officer, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

“It was a very difficult and unfortunate day for that press release to come out,” Newey said.

“The Miami Grand Prix itself was strange, because I was there with a strategy function, so on the pit wall, but I wasn’t involved in any of the engineering decisions, nor in any of the engineering meetings, basically I was just brought in tour for the press”.

“I never thought it would be big news, to be honest I never thought about it. The fact that it was in all the newspapers, on television and so on, was a bit of a shock.”