Christian Horner revealed the agreement he made with Adrian Newey before leaving Red Bull.
Christian Horner and Adrian Newey are the longest-serving members at Red Bull Racing. Horner took over as team principal in 2005, while Newey joined a year later. They made history working with legendary drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, contributing to seven drivers’ championships and six constructors’ championships for Red Bull.
The British designer officially submitted his resignation in the spring. Newey will start at his new team, Aston Martin, in March 2025. Horner has not hired anyone to replace Newey; instead, he is relying on current technical staff Pierre Wache and Enrico Balbo.
The team principal is trying to prevent potential mass departures following Newey’s exit. He lost Jonathan Wheatley to Audi and strategy chief Will Courtenay to McLaren but has reinforced the rest of his team with promotions.
Red Bull’s Dominance Sparks Competition for Newey
Given Red Bull’s dominance in Formula 1 last year, it was inevitable that rival teams would seek to poach top talent. Aston Martin hopes that acquiring Adrian Newey will transform them into a championship-winning force. Christian Horner stated that Newey has agreed to “step back from F1” by the end of 2025.
Speaking to Autosport, Horner explained that if Newey stayed with the team, he would take on a less active role at Red Bull. The plan was for the 65-year-old Newey to become a “mentor,” allowing his colleagues to take control of the design process. Horner felt this step was necessary to prevent losing other technical staff to rival teams, as some may have been frustrated by Newey’s influence limiting their impact.
Newey, who has achieved significant success with McLaren and Williams (a total of 12 championships), is one of the most renowned engineers in F1 history. This made his departure and the competition for his services highly discussed topics.
However, some Red Bull staff are reportedly “quite pleased” with Newey’s exit. They believe he overshadowed them and were not fond of his working methods. Horner stated, “According to our agreement, he will retire from F1 by the end of 2025 and will really just be a mentor. Otherwise, I would have lost other staff members to rival teams.”
Following months of silence, Red Bull employees were “shocked” by Newey’s “strange” actions. Newey felt that Horner did not give him enough credit for Red Bull’s success, emphasizing that record-breaking cars like the RB19 were a collective effort.
While describing Newey’s departure as turbulent might be inaccurate, it wasn’t entirely amicable either. Red Bull was unhappy with Aston Martin introducing Newey while he was still their employee, leading them to remove him from their travel list.
Newey was scheduled to attend specific races before the season ended, with his schedule determined by marketing opportunities for the RB17 hypercar. However, he may have already been seen for the last time in the Red Bull pit wall.
According to Peter Windsor, Red Bull employees were “shocked” by Newey’s “strange” transition to Aston. Many have not spoken to long-time colleagues since the announcement in May.
