Adrian Newey reveals moment he came close to joining Scuderia Ferrari

Adrian Newey reveals moment he came close to joining Scuderia Ferrari. Adrian Newey on moment he came close to joining Ferrari.

Seeing British Formula One engineer and designer Adrian Newey dressed in red is a dream that many Ferrari fans have shared over the years. One of the world’s most successful Formula One car designer, he has been capable of bringing Williams, McLaren and Red Bull to success with his creations in different eras and has always been one of the market targets of the various managers who have succeeded one another at the top of the Ferrari Formula 1 Racing Division.

However, Adrian Newey, always very close to his British motherland, never wanted to accept the court of Maranello. Yet there was a moment when the 64-year-old head of Red Bull’s technical area seriously considered leaving Milton Keynes and accepting the challenge of Formula 1’s most prestigious team.

This was revealed by Adrian Newey himself during an interview given to the British website The Race. In this long chat, the Red Bull chief technical officer discussed various aspects of his long experience in Formula 1, explaining how at the beginning of the hybrid era of Formula 1, in the first years of using V6 power units, his dedication to Red Bull wavered: “At the time I was quite disillusioned by the whole thing – he admitted – so much so that I was about to join Ferrari”. It would have been a great move for the Maranello team, which was close to being generated above all by Adrian Newey’s annoyance with the work of Renault, at the time the engine supplier for Red Bull.

“Although I felt happy in Red Bull and didn’t want to change teams, the only thing that made me think about leaving was the fact that we were stuck with an uncompetitive engine. We had a supplier who seemed more interested in the marketing that came with being in Formula 1 than in competitiveness. If you have a partner who offers you a power unit below the competition, but who demonstrates a real desire and willingness to solve the problem and move forward, then you accept it – concluded Adrian Newey – but with someone who does not realize that he is behind and does not seem interested in doing something, it is much more difficult. That made me lose motivation. I didn’t want to walk out on that but equally I didn’t want to be in a position where we were operating with one hand tied behind our back in the engine department. It was a very difficult decision. Ferrari came up with an incredible offer, very attractive, and it caused me a lot of sleepless nights deciding what to do and who to go for. In the end, it would have felt wrong to walk out on Red Bull.”” – the Red Bull chief technical officer concluded.