Red Bull chief Adrian Newey could be haunted by comments he made at the end of last year after he admitted that leaving the Austrian team would be akin to “walking out on family.” Newey has reportedly told his current employers he wants to move on and has been tipped to link up with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari.
Newey joined Red Bull from McLaren in 2006 and found the magic formula to produce title-winning cars for Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. He is widely regarded as one of the finest F1 car designers in the history of the sport and played an integral role in engineering his team’s unstoppable RB20.
On Thursday, the BBC reported that Newey had become unsettled at Red Bull following accusations by a female employee of sexual harassment and coercive, abusive behaviour made against Christian Horner, which the team principal denies. And Newey believes he can negotiate an exit that will allow him to work for a rival team next season.
The 65-year-old previously revealed he had been approached by Ferrari on several occasions, with Aston Martin also reportedly putting an offer on the table for him recently.
And last December, Newey suggested working for Red Bull had become personal as he told the Formula For Success podcast: “The teams I’ve worked for, I’ve hugely enjoyed, and of course Red Bull because that’s a team I’ve been at more or less from the start.
“It’s a team that I’ve been very centrally involved in developing the engineering side of the team, so it’s a team I kind of feel comfortable with. We all know how we work. I suppose to change now – I’m not saying I would never, ever change because you should never say that – but it would be like walking out on your family, because that’s what it’s become.”
And discussing the allure of the Scuderia, Newey added: “Ferrari is this magic brand that, in all honesty, probably everybody in motor racing is always fascinated by and tempted to join if they’re offered the opportunity.
“I’ve been approached – and come close – three times now. One of those was in IndyCars way back. It’s an amazing brand. It has all this mystique about it. It’s effectively the Italian national team, with all the pros and cons that come with that.
“The cons are that if you don’t do a great job, you are absolutely berated and torn apart. Of course, if you do a good job, then you’re a national hero. So that brings all its own pressures. But I have to try to take the passion side out of it and approach it from an engineering side.”
