F1 News: Engineer 'sure' Newey respecting gardening leave

(GMM) One former F1 engineer is “sure” Adrian Newey won’t have breached his current period of ‘gardening leave’.

Newey, F1’s most renowned technical mind, reached an agreement with Red Bull forbidding him from starting work at Aston Martin this year until early March.

For Fernando Alonso, that start-date makes it impossible that the team can dream about winning in 2025.

“The cars will be the same as last year, and it will be practically impossible for us to make such a big jump.”

Not just that, Newey’s main focus even when he starts will be the all-new 2026 project, admitting that his March start-date means he is already starting behind his rival designers.

“I will be focused on 2026,” he said, “but Lawrence (Stroll) will definitely want me to be involved a bit with the 2025 car.

“Whether I can really contribute something this year or not, I have no idea until I start.”

‘Gardening leave’ is essentially an agreement between teams and engineers, but Formula 1 is also interested in enforcing such contractual arrangements.

But there is always the suspicion that an engineer on ‘gardening leave’ will actually be informally working in the background.

“I’m sure he’s not going to be doing that,” Spanish former F1 engineer Toni Cuquerella told DAZN.

“Adrian is someone who has always understood and respected the profession,” he said. “Also, it gives you almost nothing and yet you’re risking a lot to do it.

“It’s a risk that he’s certainly not going to take.”

Ferrari pays staff a tasty 2024 bonus
It’s a good time to be a Ferrari employee.

It has emerged that, based on higher than expected profits in 2024, each and every member of the road car and Formula 1 divisions is being paid a bonus of 14,400 euros.

Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna – admitting that Lewis Hamilton is good for the “brand” – thinks the good times at Maranello will now continue for the foreseeable future.

“We expect strong growth in 2025, which will enable us to achieve most of our 2026 profitability targets a year ahead of schedule,” he said in a financial conference call.