Red Bull’s renowned chief technical officer Adrian Newey has admitted that not working with Lewis Hamilton is one of his F1 ‘regrets’. The 64-year-old joined Red Bull in 2006, and he has remained loyal to the team despite approaches from some of the sport’s biggest projects.
After successful stints with Williams and McLaren, championship success came only four years after landing at Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel won four consecutive titles between 2010 and 2013, with Max Verstappen finding a similar level of success at present.
Despite the enviable number of accolades Newey has raked in during his F1 engineering career, he has admitted during a tell-all interview that he holds a tinge of regret about never working with Hamilton, Fernando Alonso or Ferrari.
That’s not to say the Red Bull guru didn’t have his chances, and he has shed light on his talks with the Scuderia nine years ago.
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“My discussions in 2014 with Ferrari were purely out of frustration,” Newey told Beyond the Grid. “I really didn’t want to leave but we were in this position where Renault hadn’t produced a competitive turbo hybrid engine. That happens in the first year, OK, new rules. We all make mistakes.
“But we went to see Carlos Ghosn [disgraced former Renault CEO], Christian [Horner], Helmut [Marko] and myself to try to put pressure on him to up the budget. Ghosn’s reply was ‘Well, I have no interest in Formula 1. I’m only in it because my marketing people say I should be.’ That was such a depressing place to be.”
When pressed on whether he regrets turning down the opportunity to work for the Prancing Horse, he added: “Emotionally, I guess, to a point. Yes. But just as, for instance, working with Fernando and Lewis would have been fabulous. But it never happened. It’s just circumstance sometimes, that’s the way it is.”
With Hamilton in his late thirties and Alonso now well into his forties, Newey may never get the chance to work with the esteemed F1 duo, who have racked up a whopping nine Drivers’ Championships between them.
Alonso signed a multi-year deal with Aston Martin before the start of this season, and Hamilton has only just extended his contract with Mercedes, which will take him up to the end of 2025.
Newey himself signed renewed terms earlier this year, with Red Bull boss Christian Horner describing the long-term extension as ‘inevitable’ after 18 years working alongside one another.
