Following the start of Formula 1’s 2024 season, Red Bull has been dominating the racetracks as well as the news headlines, courtesy of the ‘now-playing’ soap opera of Christian Horner. The last episodes of this saga captured rumors of Max Verstappen and Helmut Marko possibly going out of the door at Red Bull.
However, in the latest episodes, Red Bull’s designer, Adrian Newey, has been behind the scenes for some time now.
Adrian Newey’s Red Bull situation clarified
Earlier this week, it was being rumored that Red Bull’s Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey, who is perhaps the greatest F1 car designer, was on the verge of switching roles from Formula 1 to work solely on the brand’s RB17 hypercar project—by none other than the scandal-hit Christian Horner.
According to Auto Motor und Sport, Adrian Newey is disappointed by the proposal put forth by Horner to move him full-time into designing the £5 million ($9.66 million) RB17 hypercar, and this has led to speculations of the design boss switching from Red Bull to other F1 teams, such as Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes.
The report also suggested that the shock departure was ostensibly taking place due to two major reasons: to lower the team’s budget cap and also due to Newey being fed up with the ongoing unrest at Red Bull.
However, in a turn of events, earlier today Autosport reported that the ‘legendary’ F1 designer is ‘totally determined’ to stay at Red Bull and continue on with his impactful role.
In another report, Motorsports stated that even if Newey were to be switched away from his current role, it would only be temporary. This would highly benefit the team in reducing the calendar year’s costs, as the new ‘absolute monster’ RB20 will need little input from the design Maestro for the rest of the season.
These rumors are spreading at a time when the Red Bull boss is on the verge of staying away from the team’s paddocks at the Australian GP.
Update on Adrian Newey’s trackside availability
Adrian Newey, who has been the driving force behind Red Bull’s ‘record breaking’ cars, has always worked in close collaboration with technical director Pierre Wache and his team, to ensure the car’s hit their full potential.
Although he doesn’t work full-time on the cars’ developments, he can often be seen—with the other technical chiefs—in the race paddocks at most Grand Prix events; he was present at this season’s Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. But, recently, it was told that he was scheduled to miss the upcoming Australian GP between 22nd to 24th March.
However, with all his ‘move away from Red Bull’ talks being flat-out denied by a team representative, he is expected to catch the flight to Japan and accompany Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix next month.
Red Bull will now take on the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit on March 24 at the Australian Grand Prix without Adrian Newey’s presence at the trackside.
Will Newey really return to the Red Bull paddocks at the Japanese Grand Prix? Or will he really end up leaving the Austrian team? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
