Red Bull “unaware” of Adrian Newey intention to quit

Red Bull are “unaware” of Adrian Newey’s reported intention to quit, they have told us.

The F1 world was stunned on Thursday by reports, including from the BBC, saying that Newey had told Red Bull he intends to leave his role as chief technical officer.

His departure would open the door to a seismic move to Ferrari, Aston Martin or Mercedes.

But Red Bull have told Crash: "Adrian is contracted until at least the end of 2025 and we are unaware of him joining any other team."

Sky Sports’ Craig Slater reported: “I can tell you that I do believe there is something in this.

“I’ve been ringing around senior figures within Formula 1, people who I know are close to Adrian Newey, to see if they can stand up the claims first made in the German media that he is set to leave, that he has given them notice of his intention to leave.

“Multiple senior figures that I’ve spoken to have expressed that there is discontent from Newey. He is certainly considering bringing his time at Red Bull to an end.

“I have been in touch via official channels with the Red Bull team themselves.

“They have explained to me that they are unaware of any official communication from Adrian Newey notifying of his intention to serve notice, and to leave Red Bull Racing, with whom he has had an association for almost 20 years.

“He is contracted at Red Bull Racing until the end of 2025.

“As I understand, he would have to serve a year of gardening leave if Red Bull hold him to the full extent of his contract.

“Which would mean he would not be able to work for another Formula 1 team until 2027.”

Newey is widely considered Formula 1's greatest car designer.

His influence is shown through Red Bull's current dominance, and through the RB20 which is set to power Max Verstappen to a fourth title in a row.

"The reason why Fernando Alonso only has two world championships is because of Newey, who built the cars that Sebastian Vettel drove to win four consecutive championships," Slater reported.

"I reckon if you gave most F1 team principals the option of having Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen as their driver pairing, or Newey as their chief designer, I think the majority of team bosses would take Newey. He is that good.

"He has built this current F1 car for Verstappen. Even with the rest of the field trying to close the gap in the third year of relatively stable regulations, Verstappen is still driving six tenths to a second per lap quicker.

"He is the most important signing that any team could make. If he were to go - or was put on gardening leave or was stood down - it would have a huge effect on Red Bull.

"It would seriously compromise their ability - maybe not this season - but next season onwards of dominating in the way that they have been."