Adrian Newey ‘half-hour’ from Ferrari after ‘Hollywood lifestyle’ tax-free offer

The genius designer is a major part of the team’s revival and the RB19 which has allowed Max Verstappen to win a third consecutive F1 championship.

But in 2014, after new engine regulations resulted in Red Bull losing their spot at the top of F1 to Mercedes, Newey received a massive offer to join Ferrari.

Team principal Horner told the Eff Won with DRS podcast: “We went from winning ‘10, ‘11, ‘12, ‘13 - four on the bounce - and then a massive regulation change to the engine. 

“Our engine supplier completely missed the target.

“At that point, Sebastian Vettel leaves because of the engine.

“Adrian came very close to leaving. He was about half-an-hour…

“Ferrari came hard from him and they promised him the world - ‘you can have a Hollywood lifestyle, fly into the factory from Monaco every day, not pay any tax, you can design a road car…’

“I managed to persuade him to stay by saying: ‘We will do a road car, if you want to do a road car then we will do a road car!’

“He said: ‘How?’

“I said: ‘I have no idea but we will find a way, we will make it happen’.

“Through the relationship we had with Aston Martin, I went to their CEO and said: ‘We have arguably the best designer of all time, you are a great brand,  we aren’t going to finance the car but it makes sense to bring these things together’.

“Literally in a pub in England, that’s how it happened.

“It enabled Adrian to fulfil his ambition and kept him in the team. 

“It wasn’t losing sight that, if we could just sort the engine issue, we’d be back in a winning position.”

That idea eventually became the Aston Martin Valkyrie, a hypercar which took F1 technology to the road.

Newey stayed put at Red Bull throughout Mercedes’ eight-year dominance and, today, is recognised among the greatest brains in Formula 1 history.

The F1 paddock will await with dread what updates he can bring to Red Bull’s F1 2024 RB20 car.