F1 Rumor: Adrian Newey Not Joining Ferrari or Aston Martin; RedBull Supercar Project Instead

Has Ferrari and Aston Martin’s supposed master plan to get hold of Adrian Newey already failed? In the pre-season, Ferrari announced that they had signed Lewis Hamilton for 2025 and beyond. With two of the best drivers, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on the team, Ferrari set its eyes on Adrian Newey, the legendary F1 car designer, whose machines have won more than a dozen championships since 1992. Recent reports even claimed that the negotiation between Newey and Scuderia had reached an advanced stage. Even Lawrence Stroll was reported to have offered Newey a huge deal to join Aston Martin. However, the latest report on X might be bad news for the two teams.

You see, this isn’t the first time, Ferrari has wanted or tried to poach Adrian Newey from Red Bull. They made a similar attempt back in 2014. However, to prevent Adrian from leaving, Christian Horner got him involved in a supercar project called the RB17, Red Bull’s first production car, in collaboration with Red Bull Advanced Technologies. It was only a while ago that Red Bull finally confirmed the production of a machine loaded with technology taken directly from Formula 1.

The recent attempts from Ferrari and Aston Martin to sign Adrian Newey couldn’t have come at a better time. Red Bull is currently going through a crisis that has been reported to be the result of an internal power struggle within the organization. Even Max Verstappen is facing an uncertain future with the team as a result of this. So if either Ferrari or Aston Martin could sign Adrian Newey now, they could make their way to the top of the standings.

However, according to a recent post on X from RBR Daily, Joe Saward has reported that Red Bull has supposedly got Adrian Newey involved in another Supercar project. The tweet read, “All those who are rumoring about Newey leaving Red Bull should perhaps note that he is heavily involved in plans to build the next Red Bull supercar, which will have more F1-related technologies but will cost a little less than the RB17 and will have a bigger production run.”

With Newey supposedly involved in designing another supercar, let’s take a look back at the first masterpiece, the RB17.

What makes the Adrian Newey-designed RB17 so special?

If you didn’t notice before, the 2021 championship-winning Red Bull was called the RB16B instead of the RB17, which would have been the natural numbering. So Red Bull cleverly adopted that name for its Supercar. It is Red Bull’s first production car, and they will only make 50 of them (with half of them already pre-sold). It’s a car that is designed specifically for track use.

Specification-wise, the RB17 will use a carbon-fiber monocoque chassis, as F1 cars do. It will feature extreme aerodynamics with features like ground-effect venturi tunnels that are used in modern-day F1 cars. In the words of Adrian Newey himself, “The RB17 distills everything we know about creating championship-winning Formula One cars into a package that delivers extreme levels of performance in a two-seat track car.”

The car will also have a hybrid engine producing over 1,100 horsepower. And while the full technical specifications are not yet known, it promises to be extremely high-end, considering it is designed by Adrian Newey.

Do you think Red Bull’s reported tactics for a new Supercar will help them retain the winningest car designer in Formula 1?