Adrian Newey F1 News: Ted Kravitz reveals ‘UGLY’ Red Bull idea snubbed

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Kravitz reveals ‘UGLY’ Newey Red Bull idea snubbed

Ted Kravitz has been taking a look at Red Bull's latest upgrades

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 20 July 2024 11:57 Updated: 17:41

Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz has noted an interesting development to Red Bull's car, in a huge snub to design guru Adrian Newey.

Newey has been with Red Bull for almost 20 years, with his partnership with the Milton Keynes outfit yielding 13 world championship titles so far.

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The 65-year-old has long been credited for Red Bull's dominance over the past few seasons, with the Brit designing the RB19, a car that team principal Christian Horner described as the 'most successful car in F1 history' after it claimed 21 of the 22 grand prix wins in 2023.

However, Newey recently announced he will be leaving Red Bull in the first quarter of 2025, leading to rumours swirling about where he may go next, with Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin seemingly all in the mix to land his signature.

Adrian Newey will leave Red Bull in 2025

Adrian Newey had previously been rumoured to be joining Ferrari

Red Bull upgrades at Hungarian GP

While Red Bull have been supremely dominant since the start of the ground effect era in 2022, there have been recent signs that their rivals are beginning to catch them, with five non-Red Bull drivers claiming race wins already in 2024.

This has caused the team to act, in an attempt to try and retain their constructors' title in spite of the poor form of Sergio Perez.

Red Bull have brought a plethora of upgrades to Max Verstappen's RB20 car at the Hungarian Grand Prix, reshaping the appearance of the car and scrapping an engine cover design masterminded by Newey.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 during FP2 at the Hungaroring, Kravitz explained the 'ugly' features that have been removed from the car.

"I’m outside Red Bull just admiring the upgrades on the one car because it’s the engine cover," he began explaining.

"Now, many of you have looked at this Red Bull RB20 over the season and it’s not as beautiful as it used to look, in fact they copied the cucumbers, the canon channels, the sausage channels either side of the engine airbox. You know the ones I mean, the ones that look like they’re hiding two gigantic cucumbers, cool as a cucumber, oooh I’d do anything for a bit of cucumber now!" Kravitz joked as he worked through the Hungary heat.

"But they’re pretty ugly, and you’ve always looked at them, a borrowed idea from Mercedes, and thought 'how could Adrian Newey come up with this engine cover with these huge cooling channels down the side?' Surely they’re not good, and they’ve been dropped in this upgrade.

"It looks like a much more sleek car, it looks much better, but that engine cover with the new sleek profile of it, without the cucumber canon channels on the inside is only on Max Verstappen’s car."

Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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Red Bull Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Ferrari McLaren Christian Horner