In-demand Adrian Newey reveals Red Bull ‘family’ exit chances

Adrian Newey revealed he has been approached three times by Ferrari and, although very unlikely to leave Red Bull, he hasn’t ruled it out completely.

Knowledge of Ferrari’s approach for Newey is nothing new with the Maranello outfit keen to get one of F1’s greatest minds on board but for a number of reasons, Newey has always turned them down.

But the Red Bull design chief has now revealed just how many times Ferrari have approached him and why he now feels it is very unlikely he will ever leave Milton Keynes.

Adrian Newey details reasons behind Ferrari denial

Ferrari’s interest in Newey can be traced back decades but so far, he has rebuffed every advance with an unwillingness to leave England for Italy being a main reason why – but he has admitted it is everybody in motorsport’s fascination to work for the famous team.

“Ferrari is this magic brand that I suppose in all honesty, probably everybody in motor racing is always fascinated by and tempted to join if there’s the opportunity,” he told the Formula for Success podcast.

“And I’ve been approached and come close three times now. One of those in IndyCar way back.”

But as for why he turned it down, Newey said he did not want to live in the pressure cooker that comes when a Ferrari badge is on your chest.

“It’s an amazing brand. It has had all this mystique about it,” he said. “It’s effectively the Italian national team, with all the pros and cons that come with that.

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“And the cons are that if you don’t do a great job, you’re absolutely berated and torn apart. Of course, if you do a good job, then you’re a national hero. So that brings all its own pressures.

“But I mean for me, I have to try to take the passion, that side, out and approach it from an engineering side and the teams I’ve worked for I’ve hugely enjoyed.”

He was speaking on the podcast alongside David Coulthard who was the man who convinced him to join Red Bull many years ago and Newey admitted it would be hard to leave now, even though it is still a remote possibility.

“Red Bull, which is largely in part to your advice David, because that’s a team I’ve been at, more or less from the start,” he said.

“It’s a team that I’ve been very centrally involved in developing the engineering side of that of the team, so it’s a team I kind of feel comfortable with. We all know how we work.

“To change now, I’m not saying I would never ever change, you should never say that, but it would be like walking out on your family. Because that’s what it’s become.”

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