It is confirmed: Adrian Neweyperhaps the greatest car designer in the history of formula 1leaves the Red Bull Racing Team that helped define his legacy. Red Bull has confirmed that Newey will remain with the team until the first quarter of 2025, after which he will leave, Motorsport.com Reports.
“Oracle Red Bull Racing announces today that Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey will leave Red Bull Technology Group in the first quarter of 2025,” says a release from the team. “The engineering chief will step back from his design duties in Formula 1 to focus on the final development and delivery of Red Bull’s first hypercar, the highly anticipated RB17.” He will remain involved and committed to this exciting project until its completion .”
Newey will take part in “certain races” later in the 2024 F1 season, including this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
As part of the Red Bull release, Newey wrote: “Ever since I was a little boy I wanted to be a designer of fast cars.” My dream was to become an engineer in Formula 1 and I was lucky enough to make that dream a reality let. For almost two decades, it has been a great honor for me to have played a key role in the development of Red Bull Racing from a rising newcomer to a multi-title winning team. However, I believe that now is the right time to pass this baton to others and look for new challenges.”
In a way, that negates the real reason for Newey’s departure. All was not well between Newey and Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner, and this dispute came to a head in the wake of certain allegations against Horner, who was accused of inappropriate and controlling behavior towards a female employee. The investigation into Horner’s actions has been closed, but tensions remain between Horner, Newey, Red Bull F1 director Helmut Marko and driver Max Verstappen.
Newey joined Red Bull in 2006, where his design experience helped lead the team to seven F1 Drivers’ Championships, six Constructors’ Championships, 118 wins and 101 pole positions.
It’s not clear what Newey’s next step will be. Many F1 pundits have linked him to Ferrari, which would be a logical move considering Newey once claimed this biggest regret in this sport never worked with Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton or Fernando Alonso. Ferrari has signed Lewis Hamilton as its driver for 2025, although any sweeping changes made by Newey would likely not come into effect until 2026.
What is crucial is that Newey will not be obliged to “Garden vacationThis means that there is no contractually prescribed period during which he is not allowed to work in Formula 1.