Bombshell in Formula 1: an important piece of Red Bull leaves the team

Adrian Newey, technical director, will leave the group in the first quarter of 2025: he will focus on the final development and delivery of the team’s first hypercar.

English Adrian Neweytechnical director of Oracle Red Bull Racing and a member of the company since 2006, the creator of cars where Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen was dominated by Formula 1in two different seasons, will leave the group in the first quarter of 2025, as the team reported on Wednesday.

The head of engineering, too gave the Mexican Sergio Pérez the car with which he achieved five of his six victories in the top category of motorsportsand where he achieved runner-up last season, He will leave his F1 design duties to focus on the final development and delivery of Red Bull’s first hypercar, the long-awaited RB17. In the meantime “he will remain involved and committed to this exciting project until its completion,” the company reported.

Since joining Red Bull Racing in 2006, Adrian Newey’s leadership has been instrumental in the team and group winning seven F1 drivers’ championship titles and six constructors’ championships, with a total of 118 wins and 101 pole positions, including the 2008 Toro Rosso pole and victory, Sebastian Vettel’s first win.

“Since I was a child I wanted to be a fast car designer. My dream was to be an engineer in Formula One and I was lucky enough to make that come true. For almost two decades, it has been a great honor to me to play an important role in the development of Red Bull Racing from a newcomer to a multi-title winning team. However, I feel now is an opportune time to pass that baton on to others and seek new challenges for myself.”Newey said in the statement.

“It is a real privilege and I am sure that the engineering team is well prepared for the work leading to the final evolution of the car during the four-year period established by these regulations,” he said.

The first Adrian Newey’s actual design for the team, the RB3, achieved a podium finish at the 2007 European Grand Prix. The following year his design achieved the group’s first victory with Vettel and Toro Rosso at the Italian GP.

Following the regulation changes, his RB5 design gave the team its first victory, at the Chinese Grand Prix in 2009, and five more victories that season.

In 2010, RB6 led the team to its first double title, a feat that was repeated in each of the next three years. The introduction of hybrid power in F1 in 2014 led to more difficult times and was a first step back from Adrian Newey’s exclusive commitment to F1 to enable the creation of the Valkyrie hypercar.

The arrival of Honda as the team’s power unit partner in 2019 has reignited Adrian Newey’s competition. The RB16B claimed its first championship in eight years in 2021. A sweeping rule change for next season resulted in another design.the RB18, leading to a new era of dominance that began in 2022 and continues to this day.