Secret weapon behind Red Bull's F1 dominance quits amid rumours ...

Adrian Newey has resigned as Red Bull Racing chief technical officer and will leave Milton Keynes by early 2025, the team has confirmed.

Newey has not revealed whether he intends to pursue work with another team but is hotly tipped to join Ferrari, with Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport reporting he has already met Scuderia team principal Fred Vasseur in London.

It is unclear whether the 65-year-old British designer would be required to undertake any gardening leave if he were to switch constructors, with his legal team having been locked in negotiations this week to extract him from his contract, according to the BBC.

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F1 teams will be allowed to work on their 2026 cars, built to a new rule set, from 1 January next year.

Newey’s future at the defending constructors champion has been the subject of intense speculation in the shadow of the investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour made against team principal Christian Horner by a female member of staff, an appeal into which is ongoing.

Despite having signed a contract last year that was due to keep him at Red Bull Racing until at least the end of 2025, the team has confirmed Newey will cease working with the race squad at the end of this season and will sever ties with the Red Bull Technology group by early next year.

In a statement RBR detailed that he “will continue to attend specific races to support the team trackside to the end of the 2024 season” before switching focus to “final development and delivery of Red Bull’s first hypercar, his highly anticipated RB17 set to be unveiled at Goodwood in July”.

Newey joined Red Bull Racing from McLaren in 2006, the beginning of the brand’s second year of team ownership, with 12 drivers and teams world titles already won by and with cars of his design.

But his almost two-decade stint with the Austrian-owned team has been by far his most successful and has burnished his reputation considerably.

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Red Bull Racing has amassed six constructors titles and seven drivers crowns with him at the helm of the design office as well as 118 victories and 101 poles, including Toro Rosso’s 2008 pole and victory at that year’s Italian Grand Prix.

“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,” Newey said in a statement. “However, I feel now is an opportune moment to hand that baton over to others and to seek new challenges for myself.

“In the interim, the final stages of development of RB17 are upon us, so for the remainder of my time with the team my focus will lie there.

“I would like to thank the many amazing people I have worked with at Red Bull in our journey over the last 18 years for their talent, dedication and hard work. It has been a real privilege, and I am confident that the engineering team are well prepared for the work going into the final evolution of the car under the four-year period of this regulation set.

“On a personal note, I would also like to thank the shareholders, the late Dietrich Mateschitz, Mark Mateschitz and Chalerm Yoovidhya for their unwavering support during my time at Red Bull, and Christian, who has not only been my business partner but also a friend of our respective families.

“Also, thanks to Oliver Mintzlaff for his stewardship and Eddie Jordan, my close friend and manager.“

Team principal Christian Horner paid credit to Newey as a technical genius and friend.

“All of our greatest moments from the past 20 years have come with Adrian’s hand on the technical tiller,” he said.

“His vision and brilliance have helped us to 13 titles in 20 seasons.

“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 Dietrich Mateschitz might have imagined.

“More than that, the past 19 years with Adrian have been enormous fun. For me, when Adrian joined Red Bull, he was already a superstar designer. Two decades and 13 championships later he leaves as a true legend.

“He is also my friend and someone I will be eternally grateful to for everything he brought to our partnership.

“The legacy he leaves behind will echo through the halls of Milton Keynes and RB17 track car will be a fitting testament and legacy to his time with us.”

Attention will now turn to whether Newey’s imminent departure and possible defection could influence Max Verstappen to leave the team.

The Dutch reigning champion implied earlier this year that he could be tempted to break his contract, which runs to the end of 2028, if off-track stability couldn’t be re-attained.

He has explicitly linked his future to the ongoing tenure of Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko, one of the three key figures of Red Bull’s program along with Horner and Newey.