F1 Rumor: Alpine enters frame to secure Newey’s signature (Update)

Adrian Newey has held “pretty extensive” talks with Flavio Briatore, who recently joined Alpine as their executive adviser, BBC report.

Newey is “evaluating his options”, the report says, which include an offer on the table from Aston Martin and interest from his former team Williams.

Briatore, the F1 veteran who has worked alongside Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso when they won championships, has dropped hints about Newey.

“Who is that?! He’s too cheap for me,” he joked to F1.com.

“As well, you are in the market, you are in the business, you are talking people.

“Alpine was a little bit in the corner, nobody was talking about Alpine anymore, you know what I mean?

“Now we are there, we have the finance, we have the support from the chairman, we have a big group behind us and should something happen that’s a good possibility we do it, as simple as that.

“But only if it’s good for the team.

“And then it’s not an ego trip, I take this engineer, I take this engineer, because one man is not changing the team; we have plenty of examples like that when people buy everything.

“You don’t buy the culture; the culture to win you don’t buy, you buy whatever you want.

“We have plenty of people who buy, buy, buy but the result is not really in proportion with what you buy.”

Briatore was asked if signing Newey was possible.

“Everything’s possible in life,” he responded.

(GMM) Troubled Formula 1 team Alpine has emerged as a late contender to land Adrian Newey’s signature.

As the sport headed into its August break, Italy’s Autosprint magazine claimed a September announcement was now looming – with Aston Martin apparently beating Ferrari to the deal with the departing Red Bull guru.

Lawrence Stroll is said to have won over the 65-year-old with a four-year, $100 million contract – but now Auto Bild claims Alpine’s new executive advisor Flavio Briatore has thrown a spanner in the works.

“An insider revealed that that Renault CEO Luca di Meo and his new ‘fireman’ Briatore have contacted the British mastermind and literally promised him the moon so that the aerodynamic genius will switch to Renault’s sporting subsidiary and get it back on the road to success,” wrote Ralf Bach.

“In addition to the financial aspect, he (Briatore) guarantees Newey decision freedom in all areas. According to insiders, he is now considering the offer,” the journalist added.

Newey is officially still under contract to Red Bull, but his duties are limited – including completing the RB17 supercar project. In the meantime, speculation surrounding his future have been rampant.

He told Red Bull’s Talking Bull podcast that dealing with the press attention has been “very easy because I don’t really read social media or I don’t particularly read magazines”.

“That’s kind of something I stopped doing a long time ago,” Newey added. “My wife keeps me roughly informed of what’s going on, but I’m relatively oblivious to it. I just try to lead my life and not be influenced by it.”

Jo Ramirez, McLaren’s former team coordinator who worked with Newey at the Woking based outfit in the late 90s, thinks Ferrari is still in the running.

“Today, things are different in that you can work remotely and two or three days a week he will have his private plane to take him to Italy and back,” he told El Mundo Deportivo newspaper.

“I haven’t spoken to him about it, although I did meet him at the historic Monaco GP and we chatted, although he didn’t say anything about it. He will continue in Formula 1, we just don’t know where.”

Jo Ramirez says Newey gong to Ferrari

Adrian Newey could overcome barriers which previously stopped him going to Ferrari, a former colleague has claimed.

Jo Ramirez is a veteran of the F1 paddock who worked at McLaren, alongside Newey, for four years.

He insists that a prior reluctance to move permanently to Italy would no longer prohibit Newey from joining Ferrari.

“I don’t think he will retire,” Ramirez told Mundo Deportivo.

“I see him in Ferrari, because any job you do in F1 successfully must be done in Ferrari too.

“Ferrari is the biggest team in F1 and why not, if you have the opportunity… and it’s not about money, because he already has much more money than he can spend in his life.

“The difficulty could be if he has to go to live in Italy, because he is happy in Britain.

“But today the rules have changed, you can work remotely and two or three days a week you will have your private plane to take you and bring you back. He could do that.

“I haven’t talked to him about it, although I did meet him at the historic Monaco GP and we chatted, although he doesn’t say anything about it.

“He will continue, but we don’t know where.”