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Media claims that Adrian Newey might be parting company with Red Bull, unsurprisingly seem to be wide of the mark.
For a tale that has already featured more twists than a cheap fire hose in a pretzel factory, one of the strangest – and there is serious competition – is that the Christian Horner saga could see Adrian Newey part company with Red Bull.
That’s right, not Horner, the man who has guided the team since its inception, not Helmut Marko, who has acted as consultant and Lord High Executioner, not Max Verstappen, who appears to be on his way to his fourth title, not Jos Verstappen father of the aforementioned who is alleged to have been one of the biggest sh*t-stirrers since the saga became public, but Adrian Newey.
That’s right, Adrian Newey, the man who designed the Red Bull cars that saw Sebastian Vettel claim four titles and Max Verstappen three… the same Adrian Newey that designed title winning cars for McLaren and Williams, the Adrian Newey whose cars have won 12 constructors’ titles and thirteen drivers’ championships for seven different drivers. Oh, and let’s not forget his success in IndyCar.
That Adrian Newey.
Earlier this week, amidst claims that Newey was likely to leave Red Bull, Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reported that the Briton was in fact considering moving away from F1 to concentrate on the RB17 Hypercar.
Without doubt the most successful designer in the history of the sport, arguably the greatest achiever in the history of the sport, was quitting simply to design a glorified sports car.
Earlier this year, Newey admitted that one of his only regrets was that he never got to work with Ferrari, though not for want of trying as far as the Maranello outfit was concerned.
“Ferrari came hard for him,” said Horner, referring to an approach made by the Italian company in 2014, albeit in terms of a road car. “They promised him the world. ‘You can have a Hollywood lifestyle, fly into the factory from Monaco every day and you won’t pay any tax and you can design a road car and this, that and the other’. I managed to persuade him to stay by saying: ‘We’ll do a road car. If you want to do a road car, we’ll do a road car’.”
It was claimed that moving Newey on to the Hypercar project would assist Red Bull in terms of compliance with the budget cap, whilst also removing him from the current soap opera surrounding the Austrian team.
It has now been confirmed that Newey will be with the team at Suzuka and that he remains as committed to Red Bull as ever, albeit in the Marko/Verstappen camp as opposed to Horner’s corner.
Fact is, allowing Newey to slip through your fingers would be wanton madness, unless one has the means to ensure he is confined to his garden for the next ten years.
All that aside, a move to Ferrari alongside Lewis Hamilton would be serious box office.
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