F1 News: Despite Wolff’s ‘wet dream,’ Newey staying at Red Bull (Update)

The ‘wet’ dream of either Mercedes, Ferrari or Aston Martin stealing Adrian Newey from Red Bull just got destroyed.

Adrian Newey says he will continue to work with Red Bull for “as long as the team wants me”.

And rest assured, Red Bull wants him and he’s not leaving.

“I think as long as I continue to enjoy it and the team wants me then I’ll continue to do it for the moment,” he told RacingNews365.

Technical director Pierre Wache is charged with overseeing day-to-day development of Red Bull’s cars. But Newey still plays a vital role overseeing the team’s design work as chief technical officer, while another project of his is about to come to fruition.

Red Bull’s first hypercar, the R17, has been designed by Newey and is set for an official launch later this year at Goodwood. Only 50 will be made but most have already been sold.

There are also rumors that, after the RB17, the company will produce another supercar through its Red Bull Advanced Technologies arm – with Newey again heavily involved. But his focus still remains on F1 and, after a dominant performance at last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, he spoke about the RB20’s progress.

He said: “We know what performance it theoretically gave. As far as we can see from the pressure sensors and load cells, it delivered what it said from the wind tunnel. It was a small step forward. I think this weekend we’d probably have been okay anyway. We all know it’s going to tighten up so we just keep pushing.

“The aero principals which you now see on this year’s car compared to last year is a route we were taking really since early 2022. It’s just a more extreme version or route down that same path… The architecture of the car has stayed very similar, a third generation since 2022.”

The fake rumors continue to persist that Adrian Newey, Max Verstappen or Dr. Helmut Marko will move to Mercedes. They are all false.

(GMM) Toto Wolff is not ruling out a scenario in which Max Verstappen, Dr Helmut Marko and even Adrian Newey all switch from Red Bull to Mercedes.

On the track, Red Bull’s 2024 season could not have started anymore dominantly. When asked if the Red Bull-Verstappen combination could win every single grand prix this year, Wolff answered: “At least I hope that’s not the case.”

Off the track, however, it’s been dire for Red Bull, as team boss Christian Horner’s private life and a clear power struggle at the dominant F1 team broke into the public and media.

Predictably, Red Bull’s rivals are now pouncing, with Italian reports suggesting several key engineers have been targeted for recruitment by Ferrari.

But the situation could be even more beneficial for Mercedes, given that Wolff could even offer Max Verstappen an escape route because of Lewis Hamilton’s looming departure.

F1 legend Gerhard Berger said recently that one potential outcome for Red Bull is that “Horner stays, Marko and Newey quit, and Max goes to Mercedes”. Marko even called that scenario “an interesting variant”.

When asked for his thoughts on that scenario, Mercedes team boss Wolff told Osterreich newspaper: “I’m just saying that if Horner stays, there are exciting possibilities.

“Ultimately, it’s about Horner’s personality,” he added, “but as I’ve said, I only read about what happens internally at Red Bull in the media.”

If Verstappen is pushed to the exit door, however, it’s at least conceivable that Newey – Formula 1’s most respected technical design mind – could follow.

“Everything is always possible in this crazy carousel,” Wolff said. “I wouldn’t rule anything out.

“But we already have an excellent team of engineers with whom I feel comfortable and 100 percent correctly positioned, even if the lap time doesn’t reflect that at the moment.”

Wolff even admits Marko, a clear former enemy, could wind up in a silver uniform.

“It’s all about Max and his perspectives,” Wolff, who like Marko is Austrian, said. “But to be able to judge how important Marko really is for Max, I don’t know enough about the dynamic between the two.”

However, Mercedes may find itself with a financial war on its hands to secure Newey if the 65-year-old suddenly becomes available.

“They say that (Ferrari chairman John) Elkann is ready to pay any amount for Newey to go there,” said Russian F1 commentator Alexey Popov.

Sport Bild, a specialist German magazine, claims that Newey has fallen out with Horner over the scandal, with Horner reportedly sidelining Newey in recent weeks while their personal relationship has “cooled down considerably”. This was another Fake Rumor dispelled here.

Even Franz Tost, the former Alpha Tauri boss who still works for Red Bull as a part-time consultant, admitted: “Red Bull’s success stands or falls with the Verstappen-Newey combination.”