Red Bull Could Lose A Lot More Than Just Performance In $100 Million Adrian Newey Deal

Saajan Jogia | Aug 17, 2024

Adrian Newey / Red Bull Content Pool

Adrian Newey's departure from Red Bull signals the end of a long-standing era, but what concerns Red Bull most is the potential transfer of his groundbreaking ideas to a rival team—rumored to be Aston Martin, according to Le Mans driver Robin Frijns.

The 2024 season has been tumultuous for Red Bull in many ways, starting with the allegations of inappropriate behavior against team principal Christian Horner by a team member, followed by a conflict between Max Verstappen's father Jos Verstappen, and the team boss. Not to forget reports of an internal clash between Horner and senior advisor Helmut Marko that made headlines in the early weeks of the season.

Around the time of the Miami Grand Prix, a surprising announcement came that Red Bull's chief technical officer, Newey, would depart in 2025. As the mastermind behind the team's revolutionary ground effect cars, Newey played a pivotal role in Red Bull's dominance, leading it to win 21 out of the 22 Grands Prix in the 2023 season.

However, with the rest of the grid catching up this year, the dominance has shrunk to 7 out of 14 race wins thus far, which still maintains Red Bull's lead in both championships. As per Horner's statements from last year, Red Bull seems to be experiencing a phase of diminishing returns, resulting in a tightening of the grid at the front. Frijns explained that Red Bull's fading dominance is not related to Newey's exit announcement but to other factors, such as the team's erroneous strategies. He told Formule1.nl:

"Now that Red Bull, or rather Max, is not half a second faster than the rest, you see that the team is making mistakes with strategy. Still striking. After all, Red Bull is the standard, actually in everything. People wonder if the decline is perhaps due to the fact that Adrian Newey is leaving. Personally, I don't think so.

"Newey is the most experienced man in aerodynamics at Red Bull. But many people in the team have been trained by him. He certainly does not make the car alone. If Newey drops out, the Red Bull train will continue to thunder on."

Revealing the part that could pose a big threat to Red Bull, Frijns added:

"What could be a problem: Newey takes his ideas to other teams. By the way, I expect him to go to Aston Martin, not to Ferrari. Newey wants to continue living in England in his old age.

"The fact that McLaren has surpassed Red Bull is also because Red Bull itself had to take a step back. If you lose three tenths and the competitor gains two tenths, then that half a second is already explained. It must have been something really big that Red Bull had to change in that grey area."

Rumors of a potential $100 million deal between Adrian Newey and Aston Martin have been circulating, suggesting that team founder Lawrence Stroll might be willing to go to great lengths to secure Newey's aerodynamic expertise.