Red Bull confirmed on Wednesday that celebrated chief technical officer Adrian Newey will leave the Formula One team in early 2025 after 19 years.
It was widely reported last week that the 65-year-old British designer was set to quit following a controversy involving allegations about team principal Christian Horner.
The announcement is set to spark a bidding war for Newey’s services, with Ferrari, soon to be joined by Lewis Hamilton, in pole position to sign him.
Newey, widely regarded as the greatest F1 designer and a chief architect of Red Bull’s dominance, is set to end his stay in the “first quarter” of next year, according to a Red Bull statement.
“Ever since I was a young boy, I wanted to be a designer of fast cars. My dream was to be an engineer in Formula One, and I’ve been lucky enough to make that dream a reality,” Newey said.
“For almost two decades it has been my great honour to have played a key role in Red Bull Racing’s progress from upstart newcomer to multiple title-winning Team.”
Horner lavished Newey with praise, saying “all of our greatest moments from the past 20 years have come with Adrian’s hand on the technical tiller”.
“His vision and brilliance have helped us to 13 titles in 20 seasons,” he said.
“His exceptional ability to conceptualise beyond F1 and bring wider inspiration to bear on the design of Grand Prix cars, his remarkable talent for embracing change and finding the most rewarding areas of the rules to focus on, and his relentless will to win have helped Red Bull Racing to become a greater force than I think even the late (founder) Dietrich Mateschitz might have imagined.”
Newey, expected to be in Miami for this weekend’s race, has also worked with championship-winning teams at Williams and McLaren in his long career.
It was reported Newey became unsettled after Horner was accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour by a female employee.
The team principal was cleared in February of wrongdoing by an internal investigation carried out by Red Bull’s parent company before the employee was then suspended. She is appealing that decision.
Last year, Max Verstappen and Red Bull produced the most dominant season in F1 history, with the Dutchman winning 19 of the 22 races and the team all but one.
This season they have won four of the first five races.
