Adrian Newey's Wife Defends Accusations Of Disrespecting Lewis Hamilton

Saajan Jogia | Sep 13, 2024

May 4, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Red Bull pioneering engineer and Chief Technical officer Adrian Newey on the grid before the F1 Sprint Race at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-Imagn Images / John David Mercer-Imagn Images

Adrian Newey's wife, Amanda Newey, defended him against a fan's accusation that he had shown disrespect to Lewis Hamilton over his controversial 2021 championship defeat. Adrian had discussed the intense 2021 battle between Mercedes and Red Bull during the High Performance podcast released on the same day as Aston Martin's press announcement on September 10.

Aston Martin recently announced Newey's hiring as the team's new managing technical partner and shareholder, effective in March 2025. The bombshell move echoed through the F1 fraternity, after all, the man responsible for designing Red Bull's dominant title contender in the current ground effect era, where it won 21 out of the 22 races in 2023, announced his exit from the team in May after eighteen years.

The 65-year-old designer also revealed extensively on the High Performance podcast about the 2021 championship win by Red Bull, which ended Mercedes' winning streak. The grand finale in Abu Dhabi featured a close battle between Hamilton and Max Verstappen for the championship win.

Addressing the controversial end to the championship, Newey remarked:

“No it didn’t [affect me].

“I think it got to Mercedes. Instead of saying ‘OK, we will accept it and move on’ it started to affect their psyche which is an interesting one.

“That’s from the outside. I could be completely wrong. They couldn’t let it go psychologically.”

When Amanda reposted a video on X about Adrian's signing with Aston Martin, a fan immediately responded about his comments to podcast host Jake Humphrey, saying "Shame he disrespected Lewis with him [his] comments to Jake Humphries."

No, he didn't. He has a great deal of respect for Lewis.

— Amanda Newey (@amanda_newey) September 10, 2024

Amanda responded to clarify, saying that Newey "had a great deal of respect for Lewis." Newey has previously expressed his desire to work with either Fernando Alonso or Hamilton. However, with his commitment to Aston Martin, it now appears unlikely that he will collaborate with Hamilton, who is set to join Ferrari in 2025.

When Hamilton was asked at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend if he was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to work with Adrian in the future, the Mercedes driver told Crash.net:

“Honestly, no.

“I feel like, while I’ve mentioned before that it would be an honour to work with Adrian, I have been privileged to work with two championship-winning teams that didn’t have Adrian.

“I think any team probably would have been happy to have had him. But at the end of the day he had to do what was best for him. It doesn’t change anything for me. It doesn’t change my goal, or my focus with the next move.

“So I still believe 100% that there’s lots we can do there.”