Adrian Newey has designed seven F1 title-winning cars since joining Red Bull and has been a key part of their success, though once again his abilities have attracted interest from elsewhere
Aston Martin have launched an ambitious bid to convince Adrian Newey to walk away from Red Bull.
Autosport reports the Silverstone-based squad is keen to convince the 65-year-old to embark on one final new adventure in his long and successful career. Newey has been with Red Bull since 2006 and has played a key role in designing all their title-winning cars. He signed a new deal with Red Bull only last year, amid interest from Ferrari. But now another team has decided to make a place for the F1 champions’ revered chief technical officer.
Aston Martin’s billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll is keen to lure Newey to join his F1 growing project. He has reportedly offered the 65-year-old a mega-money deal to convince him to make the change. If successful, it would be the latest major signing made by Aston Martin, who had been on an aggressive staff recruitment drive in recent years. Perhaps most notably, Newey’s long-time colleague Dan Fallows left Red Bull to join at the start of 2022.
Several other designers have also joined the project, while Aston Martin have also been investing in their infrastructure. A brand new headquarters opened last year and a state-of-the-art wind tunnel is also on the way. All of those moves are attractive to drivers, but landing Newey would be arguably even more significant. His design brain would be a powerful weapon, but perhaps even more important will be his reputation in the paddock and the high regard in which he is held by key figures up and down the grid.
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Signing Newey might be Aston Martin’s best way to convince Fernando Alonso to stay, amid interest from Red Bull and Mercedes. Perhaps even more ambitiously, it could help them convince Max Verstappen to join if the Dutchman decides to seek a fresh challenge away from Red Bull.
The Autosport report claims the salary on offer to Newey “would put him near the highest-paid drivers on the grid”. Those would be Verstappen and Hamilton, who are believed to be on base salaries of around £40m per year. Newey did say recently, though, that he was not planning on walking away from Red Bull any time soon. He is set to travel to next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix where there will surely be plenty of questions about his plans for the future.
