It’s official: Adrian Newey will leave Red Bull Racing after the current season. The legendary car designer will depart the team in the beginning of 2025. While it’s not clear yet what he will do, this news is already sending shockwaves through the paddock. So let’s take a look at why this is such a big deal.
Who is Adrian Newey?
More casual fans may not be as familiar with him, but Newey is one of the most accomplished people in the history of Formula 1. To give you an idea of his skills as a car designer: back in 1981, shortly after graduating college with a degree in aeronautics and astronautics, Newey designed a sportscar for a team called March, intended to run in the IMSA endurance category. The car immediately won two titles back to back. That’s the level we’re talking about here.
After working for March, Newey worked in IndyCar for a few years before returning to March again, this time for their Formula 1 team. He steadily climbed the ranks to become technical director, until he was inexplicably fired in 1990. But that proved to be a blessing in disguise. Newey was immediately picked up by Williams, which back then was an absolute powerhouse of a team. Between 1992 and 1997, the Williams cars designed by Newey won six constructor’s titles and five driver’s titles.
Newey would then move to McLaren in 1997. The first car he designed for the team, the 1998 MP4/13, was again an absolute monster. Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard won nine out of the sixteen races that year and only finished outside of the points once. McLaren would only win one more title (the driver’s title in 1999) they would never be too far behind the indomitable combination of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen even managed to almost win the title with the team in 2003.
By 2006, Newey was once again looking for a new team to test his skills, and he landed at Red Bull, which was just a young, upstart team back then. The first car Newey fully designed for the team won the team’s first podium in 2009, and by 2010 Newey had absolutely nailed the new regulations. With his pencil, the Red Bull cars would win every title from 2010 to 2013. The new engine regulations of 2014 put a damper on things, but slowly but surely the team would claw its way back forward until they finally won the title again in 2021. The new aero-regulations of 2022 were again a playground for Newey. The car he designed for that new set of rules has been one of the most dominant cars in the history of Formula 1.
All in all, the cars designed by Adrian Newey have won twelve constructor’s championships and thirteen driver’s championships, and I think it’s safe to say that by the end of this season he’ll be able to add another one to both categories.
Adrian Newey with five of his world champions: Alain Prost, Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Mika Hakkinen and Damon Hill.
Why would Newey leave?
A through-line in Newey’s career is that he doesn’t like managerial overreach. When he was fired from March, he said “I'd already made up my mind I was going – because once a team gets run by an accountant, it's time to move.” Later at Williams, he gladly left the team because the upper leadership was blocking his promotion to technical director. He also didn’t feel supported by the leadership in the investigation into the death of Ayrton Senna, who was driving one of Newey’s cars during his fatal accident. Later at McLaren, Newey once again felt he was being restricted too much by the people in power. They clashed badly in 2003 with major disagreements over the car, leading to two different cars being designed for that year. He even once considered joining backmarker team Jaguar, but refrained from doing so because - you guessed it - upper management was too heavy handed in running the team and he wouldn’t be free to design cars as he liked.
All this is to say that Newey is probably not too happy about the ways things are going in the upper management of Red bull right now. With the ongoing power struggle between Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, it is not too far-fetched that Newey is getting annoyed with the politics and just wants to focus on doing what he does best. There is also the suggestion that Horner is trying to sideline Newey more and more. Last year, Horner claimed that Newey’s role has changed and that the technical team isn’t fully dependent on him. While that is of course great praise for the rest of the technical team - and credit where credit is due, they do an amazing job - it must also sting for Newey. The man wants stability and the opportunity to design cars as only he can, and it’s clear that right now he is not feeling like he can get that at Red Bull.
What will Newey do now?
That’s the big question, isn’t it? On the one hand, with Newey being 66 years old by the time he’ll leave, it wouldn’t be too outlandish for him to just retire from F1. But it doesn’t seem like that will happen. Last year, in the Beyond the Grid podcast, Newey talked about his biggest regrets in his career. He mentioned two noteworthy things. 1: He wished there had been a good opportunity to work with Ferrari, and 2: He wished there would have been a good opportunity to work with Lewis Hamilton or Fernando Alonso.
Well guess what?
With a brand new set of engine regulations about to kick in in 2026, all the stars have aligned for Newey to seek his new - and perhaps final - fortune with one of those other teams. The combination of Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton currently seems the most likely, but it’s also known that Aston Martin has tried to sway Newey to their side. It would be a bit awkward, with Aston’s technical team largely consisting of former Red Bull engineers who now get a chance to shine outside of Newey’s shadow, but it also would be a no-brainer for Lawrence Stroll to get Newey on board.
The combination of a Newey-designed car with a driver like Hamilton, Alonso or Charles Leclerc at the wheel is an absolutely magnificent prospect. And if the engine manufacturers (Ferrari and Mercedes respectively) can get a proper engine for those teams, then I have no doubt that we’re about to see a brand new era of domination in Formula 1.
What about Red Bull then?
For Red Bull, this is bad news. As I said before, they can probably manage without Newey with all the genius engineers running around that team. But it definitely shows that they are losing the faith of one of their most influential cornerstones. Max Verstappen recently said that he feels it’s vital that the core team stays together. It’s clear that that won’t happen now. If it’s indeed due to Christian Horner trying to keep a tighter leash around Newey, then that might mean that Horner loses his support higher up the food chain. And Mercedes is openly courting Verstappen to join them. This might just give Verstappen the final push he needs to say goodbye to Red Bull too.
So in terms of technical prowess, this probably won’t be the end for Red Bull. But the symbolic value of this departure cannot be overstated. Newey leaving the team might mean the end to an era once again, just as it did with Williams and just as it did with McLaren.