Amid Charles Leclerc Underplaying Red Bull Mastermind’s Influence, Adrian Newey Drops Details on Ferrari’s Desperate Poaching Attempts

Adrian Newey is like the Mercedes Power Unit from the early Turbo Hybrid Era. Best performing amongst all the competitors and always reliable. We would not be wrong to label him as the god of F1 aerodynamics. The Briton was responsible for designing 10 championship-winning cars and has written a book on how to build a car. Nonetheless, Charles Leclerc recently tried underplaying Newey’s role at Red Bull. Adrian Newey then revealed how Ferrari made desperate attempts to poach him. When did Ferrari try to poach him, and what happened?

Mercedes tried signing Adrian Newey from Red Bull earlier this season with his contract ending this year. However, the Briton has now signed an extension with Red Bull. Charles Leclerc was recently asked whether Adrian Newey is the reason behind Red Bull’s success. The Monegasque underplayed Newey’s influence and suggested that success is never dependent on one person and is the contribution of many. 

As Leclerc underplayed the mastermind’s ability, Newey came out advising Ferrari’s attempts at trying to sign him. Newey explained how he has been in contact with Ferrari and thought about signing with them because of their legendary status. As Sebastian Vettel said, ‘everyone is a Ferrari fan even if they are not’. Newey added how Ferrari contacted him in 1993 and in 1997 when he moved teams. However, living in the UK, he did not want to move elsewhere for the sake of his family and made the tough decision to sign with McLaren. 

According to Formulapassion.it, Adrian Newey said, “I’ve been in contact in the past [from Ferrari] and I was very tempted to go because of course it’s a legendary brand. They probably contacted me in 1993 and then in 1997, when I went from Williams to McLaren – Newey added – and that was a very difficult choice. At the time my children were very young and I didn’t want them to change schools. If I had gone to Ferrari I would have had to move to Italy and it would have been complicated.”

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Nonetheless, Adrian Newey is already 64 years old and was considering retirement before signing the current extension with Red Bull. Let’s see what Newey’s plans are once he retires from F1.

Adrian Newey on life after he decides to leave F1. 

Life in F1 is very fast-paced and stressful as well. The pressure to perform consistently at the pinnacle of motorsport. One can only imagine how tense it must be. With Adrian Newey closing in on retirement age, he reveals that he would love to work on projects outside F1. Like the Aston Martin Valkyrie, he built in collaboration with Aston Martin and the RB17, a two-seater hypercar built by Red Bull. 

According to Firstsportz.com, Adrian Newey said, “I enjoyed doing the Valkyrie project that became the Valkyrie Aston Martin. I’ve been working on the RB17 (a two-seat hypercar built by Red Bull) as a sort of weekend project. So I do enjoy being involved in other things as well now.”

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What do you think? What could’ve been if Newey went to Ferrari? The whole course of F1 could’ve been so different from what it is.