Earlier this week, after multiple days of speculation and rumors of Adrian Newey leaving Red Bull and being discontent with the team, the Red Bull Chief Technical Officer finally announced his exit from the team. The team welcomes the request of the Briton and will leave the team in the first quarter of 2025. Many speculate a move to Ferrari in 2025, but Horner suggests otherwise revealing Newey’s plan for Red Bull.
Adrian Newey’s exit from Red Bull means that the Brit has stopped working on the F1 project effective immediately and will focus on the RB17 hypercar project by Red Bull. This will serve as his gardening period as he works away from F1 for the team. However, while many rumors suggest that Adrian Newey is in talks with Ferrari over a contract to develop the 2026 car, Horner suggests that the CTO has had enough of F1 and wants to take a break from it.
Horner: He feels that right now is the right time for him to step away. Take a bit of time out, and he is still going to be working on his RB17 – the track car that he is designing, but he felt that now is the time to take a break.
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— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) May 3, 2024
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During the Miami GP weekend, when asked about Adrian Newey, Christian Horner said, “He was seven years with Williams, seven years with McLaren, and then he has done the best part of 20 years with ourselves. Just speaking with him, he has reached a point where the team is in great, great shape, and performing at such a great level. He feels that right now is the right time for him to step away. Take a bit of time out, and he is still going to be working on his RB17 – the track car that he is designing, but he felt that now is the time to take a break.”
Despite having attractive offers from both Ferrari and Aston Martin, retirement might as well be the best option for the aerodynamic legend. After All the Briton is already 65 years old and just one year away from the retirement age in the United Kingdom. Moving away from the UK to Italy will be a huge cultural change and we doubt if Newey would want that at this age. He’s achieved everything that he could in F1.
Adrian Newey has also expressed his passion for other things away from F1 and is most likely to follow them post his Red Bull career. Let’s See what they are.
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Designing Road Cars, Sailing his Yacht: Adrian Newey’s passion away from F1
Adrian Newey is set to get delivery of his Oyster Yacht this year. In Oyster’s YouTube video, Newey talked about how he likes the idea of sailing and how peaceful and serene it is for him, just having the idea of disconnecting from the world of F1. The engineer also described that he’s already planned his first trip that he’ll be taking once his 885 yacht is delivered. The yacht is believed to cost $5 million dollar and Newey has been personally involved in designing it as per his liking visiting the factory on multiple occasions.
On the other hand, Newey also wants to design road cars. The RB17 project was one if the reason why Newey signed the extension with Red Bull last year. He was also involved in the development of the Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar, one of which is owned by Max Verstappen. Being totally away from the F1 will help Newey give more time to these projects and is another reason why retirement makes sense for him. However, nothing is confirmed yet.
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We’ll only know of Newey’s plan next year during the first quarter when he leaves the Red Bull team.