Red Bull’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey is set to leave Red Bull Racing immediately, focussing solely on the team’s Hypercar project until 2025.
Adrian Newey has been with Red Bull since 2006, with his cars going on to win 6 constructors championships and 7 drivers championships during his time at Milton Keynes, and looks set to add to both of those tallies with the RB20.
On top of his success with Red Bull, he also won an additional 6 constructors and drivers championships with Williams and McLaren, making him the most successful car designer in F1 history.
However his time as the architect of Red Bull’s dominance has come to an end. Rumours arose of a power struggle between Christian Horner and Helmut Marko earlier in the season, which cane to light following allegations of sexual misconduct against Horner.
Newey will now leave the F1 team with immediate effect, and will now be solely focussed on Red Bull’s Hypercar project – the Red Bull RB17, until the first quarter of next year, at which point he will then depart the team entirely.
It is not thought that Newey will be subject to any gardening leave upon his exit from Red Bull, making him a very hot commodity for the teams hoping to court his services ahead of the major 2026 regulation changes, with the hope he can make an immediate impact on their potential designs. He has already attracted interest from the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin.
Christian Horner praised Adrian Newey’s contribution to the team’s success, saying that he leaves Red Bull as “a true legend”.
“All of our greatest moments from the past 20 years have come with Adrian’s hand on the technical tiller. His vision and brilliance have helped us to 13 titles in 20 seasons.
“His exceptional ability to conceptualise beyond F1 and bring wider inspiration to bear on the design of grand prix cars, his remarkable talent for embracing change and finding the most rewarding areas of the rules to focus on, and his relentless will to win have helped Red Bull Racing to become a greater force than I think even the late Dietrich Mateschitz might have imagined.”
On deciding to leave Red Bull, Newey simply stated that he wanted to “hand the baton over to others and to seek new challenges for myself”.
“For almost two decades it has been my great honour to have played a key role in Red Bull Racing’s progress from upstart newcomer to multiple title-winning Team.
“I would like to thank the many amazing people I have worked with at Red Bull in our journey over the last 18 years for their talent, dedication and hard work. It has been a real privilege, and I am confident that the engineering Team are well prepared for the work going into the final evolution of the car under the four-year period of this regulation set.
On a personal note, I would also like to thank the shareholders, the late Dietrich Mateschitz, Mark Mateschitz and Chalerm Yoovidhya for their unwavering support during my time at Red Bull, and Christian, who has not only been my business partner but also a friend of our respective families. Also, thanks to Oliver Mintzlaff for his stewardship and Eddie Jordan, my close friend and manager.”
