The world of Formula 1 stopped and took a moment for themselves when Adrian Newey confirmed he was to leave Red Bull. After nearly two decades of work, six constructors’ championships, and eight drivers’ championships, the legendary engineer has moved to the struggling Aston Martin as managing technical partner.
In a recent interview with Sky Sports F1, he admitted he had “no idea” what to do once he’d resigned from the Milton Keynes outfit.
Confirming there were multiple reasons behind his exit from the team, Newey discussed his thought process of deciding whether to retire, or to continue working. Whether it be in F1 or outside of the sport.
“I resigned from Red Bull for a whole host of reasons, and genuinely at that point had no idea what I was going to do next. So then it was kind of sitting back, thinking about it, chatting to Mandy, my wife, about what we should do – and that ranged from kind of relax and go on sun holidays or whatever, drink lots of margaritas or something, to going again in work. And then, if it’s going to be work, what would that be?”
With the Aston Martin Valkyrie under his belt and the RB17 still under his responsibility, he was tempted to pivot an inch to the road car industry.
“Road cars have always been an interest. I enjoyed the Valkyrie project, I am enjoying the RB17 project because I’m still involved in that. But I think what I’ve loved about my career is that combination of man and machine, sporting endeavour – the fact that every week, or very often now every week, you’re out on show.”
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing, Adrian Newey, Chief Technical Officer of Aston Martin F1
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images via Getty Images
Newey admitted he thrives on the feedback of a sport so fast-paced.
“If I compare that to my friends from university who went into aeronautics – working on aircraft for companies like British Aerospace or Rolls [Royce] – they’re working on projects where you don’t see whatever you’re working on fly for 10 or 15 years. There’s not a lot of feedback. So I kind of felt it needed to be man and machine, competition again.”
America’s Cup has always been a challenge Newey has wanted to conquer, with the designer joining Red Bull Advanced Technologies and Ben Ainslie Racing over a decade ago.
“America’s Cup is very interesting, very much a parallel universe. Technologies are all very similar. The only thing I don’t like about America’s Cup is there’s no right of reply. You’ve got a competition once every four years.
“And from when the boat goes in the water to when you’re competing is two months at most. So if you haven’t got the design quite right to start with, you really haven’t got time to sort it out. Whereas in Formula 1, even if you don’t start the season well, if you’ve got the fundamental architecture of the car right, you’ve got the right power unit, great drivers — then you can turn it around. And I guess McLaren’s a very good current example of that.”
With an impressive infrastructure and the draw of a two-time champion in Fernando Alonso, Newey eventually confirmed his partnership with billionaire owner of Aston Martin Lawrence Stroll and joined the team for the first time on-track at the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend.
