Ferrari intensifies negotiations with Adrian Newey to create a dream team for 2026 F1 season

01/05/2024 13:25

Adrian Newey is leaving Red Bull, it’s now official. The Red Bull team has released an official statement emphasizing that the British engineer will depart from the squad in the first quarter of 2025. The engineering genius will step back from Formula 1 design duties in order to focus on the final development and delivery of Red Bull’s highly anticipated RB17 Hypercar. He will remain involved and committed to this project until its completion, with gardening leave lasting about 11/12 months.

Scuderia Ferrari is now ready to do whatever it takes to deliver the final blow. After nearly twenty years, the English designer has left the Milton Keynes team to face a new challenge in Formula 1 in the near future. Exhausted by recent events within the reigning world champion team, Adrian Newey has decided to expedite the end of his relationship with the Austrian company, set for the first quarter of 2025.

Among the various reasons we find the tasks assigned by Christian Horner to Pierre Waché, the technical director of Red Bull, who will effectively be in charge of designing the new Red Bull cars starting from the 2026 Formula 1 season, when yet another change in the sport will occur due to the new technical rules and regulations on power units and aerodynamics. In practice, the French engineer will have full powers, dethroning the British genius, who is now seeking new challenges considering his extreme curiosity in the world of Formula 1, which “doesn’t allow him” to hang up his beloved pencil, as still eager to work on enlightened projects in the premier category of motorsport.

The seemingly indestructible relationship between Adrian Newey and Christian Horner has deteriorated for quite some time, even before the case involving the British team principal, aka “Employee X,” erupted, to the extent that the contract signed at the end of 2023 already included specific clauses that evidently have been exercised. Now it remains to be seen what the next destination of the British engineer will be. An individual who always knows what and how to do to bring brilliant and, above all, winning projects to life.

Ferrari launches the attack on Adrian Newey to create a dream team

Ferrari seems to be an undoubtedly very enticing option for several reasons, and retirement, as suggested by some, would make no sense, because otherwise, why would Adrian Newey be distancing himself earlier than expected from the F1 project of the Milton Keynes team? Aston Martin doesn’t seem to be a welcome destination for the Briton, who would finally be ready to land in Maranello after a courtship lasting for decades, and perhaps this time, we have finally arrived at the fulfilment of this plan, thanks also to the personal involvement of Ferrari chairman John Elkann.

The reasons that would drive Adrian Newey to Ferrari are manifold: let’s start with the number one assumption, namely working in Maranello for the first time after a career filled with successes, and winning with the Scuderia would be the icing on the cake of a fantastic adventure for the British designer, who would finally find himself with his protégé, Lewis Hamilton. There has always been mutual respect between the two, but they have never managed to find the right moment to work together.

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The seven-time Formula 1 world champion would be the number one guarantee for Adrian Newey himself, because landing at Scuderia Ferrari on the threshold of 40 years old means having one thing in mind, ending his career with a world championship title for the Prancing Horse team, thus ensuring his permanent place in the history of Formula 1. And then there would be other projects, like sailing, rather than the Hypercars made in Maranello, something that other teams, with all the goodwill, would struggle to provide to an engineer always in search of continuous challenges, a man who still gets excited when he sees his cars triumph.

Adrian Newey is therefore shaking up the Formula 1 market more than a top driver. The car designer remains silent, but sparks the imagination of insiders and fans alike. He hasn’t spoken, but has made it known that he no longer wants to stay at Red Bull Racing. First, he must ensure that Max Verstappen secures his fifth consecutive world title next year, with the evolved RB20 already in the works within the technical staff of the reigning world champion team.

The working relationship with Christian Horner, the boss to whom he has been closely tied since the inception of Red Bull Racing in 2006, has been strained. It’s not so much the “sexy-gate” scandal that has shaken the team dominating Formula 1 from within, but rather the new power dynamics that are reshaping the landscape of a structure that until recently seemed monolithic. Christian Horner, with an extraordinary ability to control nerves, has won the power struggle with the Austrian side: the team principal has found support from Chalerm Yoovidhya, owner of 51% of Red Bull GmbH, in the showdown with Dietrich Mateschitz’s son, Helmut Mark, Oliver Mintzlaff, and the other chief executive officer, Franz Watzlawick.

Jos Verstappen has been the one who has sparked the most controversy, openly hostile towards Christian Horner, threatening to take Max Verstappen elsewhere and publicly seen chatting with Toto Wolff, but even the Dutchman has recently been shielded. In short, Christian Horner has managed to build a miraculous precarious balance that continues to produce the RB20’s one-two finishes.

And perhaps the English manager didn’t expect that the breaking point could come from Adrian Newey. At the Jeddah circuit in Saudi Arabia, Christian Horner had sent a strong message that seemed destined for Max Verstappen, but probably had another recipient as well.

Christian Horner emphasized that the team’s unity is paramount, stating that without absolute harmony, the exceptional performances they achieve would not be possible. He made it clear that if anyone no longer wished to be part of the team, they wouldn’t be compelled to stay. Those present were there because they wanted to be and had a deep passion for their work. Horner expressed confidence that this ethos, which he described as the DNA of Red Bull Racing, would persist over time, asserting their commitment to continuing their success for the next 20 years.

A clear message that must have opened a rift in the bond with the British car designer. And then, Adrian Newey’s doubts emerge: he doesn’t like the 2026 Formula 1 regulations, which are biased towards the new power unit and overly restricted in aerodynamics. If we add to all this that the Red Bull Powertrain engine, which is supposed to debut with the new cars, doesn’t seem to be yielding encouraging results, it becomes clear that Adrian Newey is ready to take a step back, not very inclined to relive the beginning of the hybrid era in 2014 when the Milton Keynes team struggled with an inadequate Renault power unit.

Now the situation is much more fluid: Adrian Newey has no intention of taking on the role of technical director of a team because he would only accept a position as a consultant, without the obligation to be present at all races. Aston Martin has put forward an offer of $100 million over four years, a figure befitting a top driver. Does Adrian Newey have the desire to commit to such a long new cycle, up to the age of 70? This could be the reason to decline Mr. Stroll’s offer, although the challenge of leading the prestigious British brand to victory would greatly intrigue him.

Scuderia Ferrari would of course also be willing to take him on part-time: luring him away from Red Bull and relying on his ingenious ideas is very appealing. He could even work remotely as he already does so with the Milton Keynes team when he retreats to his home in South Africa, finding a balance with the staff led by Ferrari’s current Chassis Technical Director Enrico Cardile. The game is open, wide open, but far from decided.

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