Who will sign Newey? Red Bull convinced him of his time with a fighter in an inverted position

Adrian Newey announced that he was leaving red bull after 18 years and the rumors of paddock They put you in two possible teams: Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton, or in Aston Martin, with Fernando Alonso. He has become the most wanted person in the market because in his head and hands is the possibility of designing the champion car of the new regulations. 2026.

In Italy, last week they abandoned his signing for Ferrari. However, Benedetto Vigna, executive director, did not attach importance to this information. and himself Newey assured a few days ago that “right now I don’t have any plans.” So, the doubt remains: Who will be able to convince him?

Ferrari and Aston Martin projects can be very sweet for the F1 design ‘guru’. The one from Maranello is due to the possibility of returning the most popular team on the grid to the top after many years of drought, and also helping Hamilton achieve a record 8 world titles. That of Aston Martin, for leading a historic brand to success with one of the drivers he always wanted to work with, Fernando Alonso, and without having to leave England.

However, whoever wants to hire him, apart from the big project and a lot of money, must work hard to convince him. Although in any case it should be easier than when Christian Horner achieved the star signing of Adrian Newey.

On that occasion, Horner was not wrong: “For us, this is an important hire. If I had to choose between Adrian Newey and Michael Schumacher, I would always choose Adrian.” Like that. In today’s F1, where the car decides 80 or 90% of a driver’s result, Adrian Newey can be the main factor that gives you the World Championship or not.

This is the signing of Adrian Newey for Red Bull

When a young Christian Horner arrived at the new Red Bull team in 2005 after an incredible story of improvement, he thought the key to creating a winning team was to sign the best engineer F1 had: Adrian Newey, whose revolutionary cars won six driver and constructor titles in the nineties. And he threw himself head on it, taking advantage of that fact David Coulthardthen in Red Bull, I know him from his past in McLaren.

“In Monaco we had an Energy Station floating in the harbor, we had a sort of ‘Star Wars’, and Adrian was curious,” explained Horner years ago. “So he came over to see what we were doing. I told David (Coulthard), who of course worked most of his time at McLaren with Adrian and knew him well, that I wanted to try to get him to join us. “David said, ‘Here are your phone numbers. Let’s see if we can set up dinner.’ So in July David and I had dinner with Adrian and his wife at the Bluebird on the King’s Road.”he added.

“David is excited about Red Bull and the team, but we didn’t discuss the possibility of Adrian joining the team, we had a nice, relaxed evening, and he and I got on well. I feel he is frustrated with McLaren. She is not treated well, and there doesn’t seem to be any magic between her and Ron (Dennis). And his contract is about to expire.”. That’s when Horner told his plan to Red Bull boss and founder Dietrich Mateschitz. From there, the closest thing to visiting an amusement park for Newey began. They did everything to convince him. Even put him in a fighter.

“I told Dietrich that I thought we had a chance of getting Newey, although I did not tell him at the time how much investment I thought it would be. Dietrich immediately said: ‘Let’s see if we can get it.’ So in October we flew with Adrian to Salzburg, took him in a helicopter over the mountains to have lunch with Dietrich and showed him what Red Bull is. Among other things, we took our Alpha Jet fighter and put it in an inverted position over Kitzbühel at 500 feet above the ground.”Horner remembered.

That night, I told him: “Adrian, we would love for you to come. Would you like to come with a figure that caught my attention, because it was 70% higher than what he warned Dietrich we had to pay. He was silent for a few seconds and then said he said, ‘Let’s go for it,'” and Newey accepted. The rest is history.

This is how Adrian Newey changed at Red Bull

Will Adrian Newey make an immediate impact on whichever team he goes to? Horner himself has the answer. And the Team Principal of the Red Bull team explained a few years ago that Adrian Newey asked for changes since he arrived at Red Bull to create a winning team.

“Newey’s involvement in the team was felt almost immediately, because shortly after his arrival in Milton Keynes in February 2006, he began to propose changes that would change the fortunes of Red Bull as an F1 constructor. Adrian forced us to change the culture, because his way of working was completely different”Christian continued.

“We weren’t prepared for the amount of detail he went into. For starters, he still uses a drawing board. I have to make a deal with Martin Whitmarsh and pay the charity so that McLaren can get his beloved whiteboard out.who followed him there from Williams and is now in his office at Red Bull,” he says of maestro Adrian, a superstar who wants to continue putting his version of the fastest car on the planet on paper.