Design guru Adrian Newey has reportedly informed Red Bull that he will stay with the team despite the uncertainty surrounding Christian Horner’s future. Speculation on a potential move to Ferrari has been bubbling up due to Newey’s past comments and curious social media activity.
Allegations of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ against Horner are expected to move towards a resolution during a hearing at the Red Bull factory on Friday. The long-serving team principal has been in situ since 2005, overseeing four Drivers’ Championships for Sebastian Vettel and three more for Max Verstappen.
Newey, Red Bull’s highly influential chief technical officer, joined the year after Horner. And some have theorised that the 65-year-old could look to jump ship and pursue a dream move to Ferrari if Horner is forced out.
When asked whether he regrets never getting the chance to work with the Prancing Horse, he told Beyond The Grid: “Emotionally, I guess, to a point. Yes. It’s just circumstance sometimes. That’s the way it is.”
Furthermore, Newey’s wife liked a post on X which stated the recent sequence of events gives him the ‘chance to tick off those regrets’. However, according to F1-insider, Newey has already informed Red Bull that he will remain loyal to them regardless of whether Horner stays or goes.
The report adds that Horner and Newey’s Red Bull contracts were once linked to one another – meaning one of them could follow the other out of the exit door without repercussions – although that is no longer believed to be the case. In fact, the ‘bonds of friendship’ between the design mastermind and the Red Bull boss have reportedly ‘broken’.
“Last year’s car was an evolution of ’22 in its main points being of course, the normal winter development in terms of aerodynamics, some understanding on what we needed to do with [the] suspension to try to improve the car as well, and getting weight out of it, because we never got down to the weight limit in ’22.
“This year’s car is the third evolution of that original RB18. What we don’t know, of course, is whether the third evolution is too conservative, while others have done something different. You just don’t know.”
