The Red Bull exit timeline and Aston Martin offer that convinced Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey has revealed when he made up his mind to leave Red Bull, and why he’s put pen to paper with Aston Martin.

The 65-year-old F1 car designer has signed with Aston Martin on a new long-term deal in which he becomes a shareholder as well as a new job title as managing technical partner for the Silverstone-based squad.

When did Adrian Newey decide to leave Red Bull?

Having been with the Red Bull squad for almost 20 years, the decision to leave the team he had described as “family” was not an easy one to make.

But, citing a desire to step back from F1 for a while and evaluate his future at a time when the Red Bull team was embroiled in off-track dramas, Newey has revealed that he made up his mind to leave Red Bull over the weekend of this year’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Suzuka was one of Newey’s last races which he attended while still actively working on the Red Bull F1 team and was the weekend at which the squad rolled out a comprehensive upgrade package with which Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez claimed a 1-2 finish.

But, just two rounds later, in Miami, Newey was confirmed as leaving the team and spoke about his desire to take a breather from the coalface of chasing performance in F1.

Speaking at a special press conference at which Aston Martin confirmed his arrival, as he begins work at the Silverstone-based team on March 1st 2025, Newey spoke of his decision to leave and seek a new challenge.

“I decided to stop at Red Bull, which was over the Suzuka weekend back in April, and then genuinely had no idea what would be next,” he said.

“I think I felt as if I needed a new challenge, and so, towards the end of April, I decided I needed to do something different. I spent a lot of time with Mandy, my wife, kind of discussing, Okay, what’s next? What do we do? Do we go off and sail around the world? Do I do something different, America’s Cup or whatever?

“So we took a bit of time out, and I felt I’ve been lucky enough to have achieved what I aspired to from the age of 10 or 12, which was simply to be a designer – I don’t think you would know the word engineer, in motor racing.

“I just wanted to have a blank mind, kind of take stock and enjoy a bit of a break and was hoping that… kind of standing in the shower somewhere, the spark would come of, ‘Yep, this should be the direction’.

“Amanda is a big part of that, as well, of our discussions on what should we do. I think she was worried that I would probably drive her a bit mad if I was home too much!

“So, I think, by late June, let’s say certainly, then I felt, actually, you know what? Being involved as a designer in motor racing has been my ambition since the age of 10 or so, we’ve been lucky enough to achieve that.

“I think it’d be an exaggeration to say I’ve enjoyed every single day of my career, but well over 90 percent of it has been hugely enjoyable.

“I still love the challenge of trying to add performance to the car – that’s my kind of prime motivation. That’s what gets me up in the morning.”

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Adrian Newey highlights the ‘immediate feedback’ of F1 design

One key aspect of his enjoyment of F1 is that there are instantaneous answers as to whether a design works on track – an immediate feedback loop which Newey highlighted as being imperative to his continuation in F1.

“I think what’s amazing about a technical sport, I mean that combination of man and machine, then you have that immediate feedback of how you’re doing,” he said.

“It can be painful, of course, when you’re doing badly, but you have that feedback. If I compare that back to a lot of my friends who I still keep in contact with from university, from my aeronautics course, then they went to work for British Aerospace and Rolls Royce engines and so forth, and they had no feedback.

“So I think I chose well, if you like, in my aspirations – I didn’t realise at the time, of course, to work in this man and machine sport. If you then say, ‘Okay, well, what’s the pinnacle of man and machine?’

“Clearly, it’s Formula 1. So yes, I remain interested in the America’s Cup. I remain interested in many other things, but, if I’m going to do man and machine, might as well keep going at the pinnacle as long as people want me!”

Why Lawrence Stroll’s involvement played decisive role in signing for Aston Martin

With Newey having signed a new long-term deal to stay in F1 and commit to trying to help Aston Martin win its first titles, he said his gym encounters with Lawrence Stroll over recent years allowed him to get to know the team owner.

“I never, of course, expected anything like whilst I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with, but you have to be honest with yourself. You have to keep yourself fresh,” he said.

“So I felt I needed a new challenge, and so I took a bit of time off. Lawrence and I have known each other off and on over the years. We often bump into each other in the gym, particularly at the Middle East and Far East races. So, I announced to everybody that I would be departing the old team, then I was very flattered to have a lot of approaches from various teams.

“But really, Lawrence’s passion, commitment, and enthusiasm is very endearing. It’s very persuasive.”

Stroll’s direct ownership of the majority shareholding of Aston Martin, even as other investors come on board in minority holdings, also piqued Newey’s interest as being more akin to an old-school ownership structure.

“The reality is, if you go back 20 years, then what we now call team principals were actually the owners of the teams – Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Eddie Jordan, etc, etc.” he said.

“In this modern era, Lawrence is actually unique in being the only properly active team owner. I think that does bring a different feeling when you have somebody like Lawrence involved like that, it’s back to the old school model and to have the chance to be a shareholder and a partner is something that has never really been hasn’t been offered to me before.

“So it’s a slightly different slant. It’s one I’m very much looking forward to. It became a very natural choice.”

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