Adrian Newey’s future remains with Red Bull despite ongoing team turmoil

Red Bull's Adrian Newey.
In recent days, rumours that Adrian Newey is set to leave Red Bull have gained momentum, but PlanetF1.com understands these rumours are inaccurate.
The ongoing turmoil within Red Bull Racing since the parent company dismissed its investigation into Christian Horner has resulted in plenty of speculation about potential departures – even including Max Verstappen and Adrian Newey.
Adrian Newey departure not an internal concern
Over the Saudi Arabian GP weekend, the situation threatened to boil over as Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko revealed he couldn’t rule out being suspended by Red Bull GmbH – before promptly leaving the paddock.
It led to Max Verstappen making very public statements confirming his loyalty to Marko, with the Dutch driver all but stating that if Marko isn’t involved at Red Bull, he won’t be either.
Marko duly arrived in the paddock on Friday accompanied by Red Bull GmbH CEO Oliver Mintzlaff. He confirmed he has every intent of seeing out his three-year contract with GmbH after lengthy conversations with Mintzlaff – a situation that seemed to steady the ship regarding Verstappen’s position.
But that hasn’t stopped suggestions that Adrian Newey – the legendary car designer who has overseen the designs of all of Red Bull’s title-winning machinery over the last 17 years – could be eying up an exit from the Milton Keynes-based squad.
The rumours have suggested that Newey is unhappy with the turmoil within the team and that he has been reassigned to work on Red Bull’s RB17 hypercar after being pulled off working on the F1 side.
But sources have told PlanetF1.com that there are no concerns within Red Bull that Newey is set to depart for pastures new – with some suggestions being made he could be tempted by a switch to Maranello to pair up with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, or changing to nearby Mercedes if he would prefer to remain in the UK.
Newey is currently working on the RB17 project but hasn’t been pulled off F1 duties and, while he has no plans to attend the upcoming Australian Grand Prix, Red Bull has confirmed to PlanetF1.com that he will be back on the ground at next month’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Sources have also told PlanetF1.com that rumours of Newey’s unhappiness within the organisation are also vastly overblown, with the English engineer having signed a new long-term contract to stay at Milton Keynes – a deal signed off on last May.
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Christian Horner: I lead the Red Bull team
With the off-track distractions drawing attention away from Red Bull’s dominant start to the season with two consecutive 1-2 finishes, team boss Christian Horner has attempted to draw a line in the sand to end the dramas that have enveloped the team for two months.
“I think that there’s probably too much said already by other parties,” the 50-year-old said in Saudi Arabia.
“The team is the team, Max is part of the team, Helmut is part of the team, I lead this team, and everybody has a key role to play.”
Over the weekend, Horner’s future was also rumoured to be hanging in the balance as Thai majority shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya had supposedly been swayed away from his support of Horner.
But PlanetF1.com also understands this to be inaccurate, with the shareholders continuing to back Horner in the wake of the internal investigation as the employee at the heart of the investigation was suspended by Red Bull Racing last week, for reasons understood to be related to dishonesty.
A spokesperson for the racing team said: “As Christian has said, he is grateful for the full support of the shareholders and that remains the case.”
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