Lewis Hamilton Speaks Out On Adrian Newey's Ferrari Rejection

Saajan Jogia | Sep 13, 2024

2024 Italian Grand Prix, Friday / Sam Bloxham

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has revealed that Adrian Newey's rejection of Ferrari for Aston Martin in 2025 hasn't disappointed him. The seven-time world champion is set for a move to Ferrari in the next season.

Hamilton announced his game-changing move ahead of the 2024 season that activated the driver market even before the Bahrain GP season opener. If that wasn't enough of a shocker, Newey's Red Bull exit in May took everyone by surprise, followed by an announcement of his Aston Martin joining on September 10.

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, will start a new chapter in the premier class of motorsport after eighteen years.

Ferrari was one of the teams rumored to be courting Newey, alongside Williams, Alpine, Aston Martin, and McLaren. While speculation strongly tied him to the Maranello outfit, Newey ultimately chose to join Aston Martin, drawn by Lawrence Stroll's long-term vision and the team's state-of-the-art facility at Silverstone.

Ahead of the Azerbaijan GP at Baku, Hamilton was asked if Newey's preferring Aston Martin over Ferrari had disappointed him. He told the media:

“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.”

Hamilton's future teammate at Ferrari, Charles Leclerc sided with him about Newey. He added:

 “There are no disappointments.

“It’s not like we haven’t tried or spoken to Adrian.

“I know that there were talks and he made his decision. I respect his decision.

“At the end as Ferrari, we have always considered more the group than the individual. Of course Adrian has an incredible track [record] and has done amazing things.

“But we have an amazing group and I have no doubts that going forward we have an extremely strong team to come back at the top. I’m really happy with the structure.

“Obviously it’s Fred’s job to try and put the team in the best possible place to try and win races and I 200 percent trust Fred and I’m completely onboard with his vision.

“It’s a continuous process to try and improve Ferrari over the years and we are in the middle of this process. But I am super happy with the way he sees things and the things he does.”