UPDATE [1/5/2024]: After 18 years with Red Bull Racing, Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey is leaving the team he crafted two distinct dynasties of Formula 1 dominance for, confirms the paddock’s leading outfit.
Red Bull Racing stated: “Oracle Red Bull Racing today announces that Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey will leave the Red Bull Technology Group in the first quarter of 2025. The engineering supremo will step back from Formula 1 design duties to focus on final development and delivery of Red Bull’s first hypercar — the hugely anticipated RB17. He will remain involved in and committed to this exciting project until its completion.”
The groundbreaking news comes as reports Scuderia Ferrari has made on official offer surfaces.
Multiple reports have indicated that Red Bull Racing is losing its Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey next season, despite having contracted Formula 1’s engineering GOAT until “at least the end of 2025.”
The story was first broken by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, before the BBC and Sky Sports independently verified the intel circulating among “high-level sources” within the race outfit.
It’s believed the architect behind Red Bull Racing’s dynastic dominance is opting for an early exit due to the accusations of sexual harassment and coercive, abusive behaviour lodged against Team Principal & CEO Christian Horner by a female employee. While the claims were dismissed in late February, the woman who brought the complaints forward has since appealed the outcome. And Newey is apparently “unsettled.”
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Speculation has chalked the aforementioned up as a symptom of the larger power struggle at play at Red Bull Racing (and Red Bull Gmbh as a whole). For months, there have been headlines surrounding in-fighting between the company’s leadership post-death of co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz; as well as both motorsport director Helmut Mark and Jos Verstappen, father of Max, finding themselves at odds with the team principal.
The elder Verstappen has even publicly stated that Horner was in danger of “tearing the team apart.”
This has also occurred as Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team openly courts Red Bull’s three-time world champion Max Verstappen to take the seat of its own outgoing seven-time champion, Sir Lewis Hamilton, as the latter prepares to jump ship for redder pastures in 2025.
According to the BBC, Newey has been strongly linked with Scuderia Ferrari (imagine the dominance he and Hamilton could achieve) and is also known to have been made an offer by Aston Martin. Though don’t be surprised if every constructor on the grid breaks out the war chest for a chance of signing him.
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Wherever he lands, it’ll certainly deal a heavy blow to Red Bull Racing’s competitiveness. Especially as they approach a crucial technical transition (i.e. partnering with Ford for power units; the forthcoming regulation changes).
Last season, thanks in great part to his engineering prowess, Red Bull Racing won 21 of the 22 races. Beyond his near-20-year stint at Charging Taurus alone, Adrian Newey’s road rockets have won a whopping total of:
- Over 200 Grands Prix
- 12 Constructors’ Championships with three different teams
(Williams, McLaren, Red Bull Racing) - 13 Driver’s Championships for seven different drivers
(Nigel Mansell — 1992, Alain Prost — 1993, Damon Hill — 1996, Jacques Villeneuve — 1997, Mika Hakkinen — 1998 | 1999, Sebastian Vettel — 2010 | 2011| 2012 | 2013, Max Verstappen — 2021 | 2022 | 2023) - And God knows how many career points
UPDATE: “Adrian Newey is contracted until at least the end of 2025 and we are unaware of him joining any other team,” a Red Bull Racing spokesperson told AFP.
