F1 legend Adrian Newey admits being IGNORED by Red Bull over 2024 concerns

Red Bull

Newey admits being IGNORED by Red Bull over 2024 concerns

The designer announced his exit midway through the season

Chris Deeley

Tuesday 4 February 2025 09:57

Adrian Newey has revealed that Red Bull ignored his warnings about their car design, in a move which may have lost them a world championship.

The legendary designer announced his departure from the team last year after nearly two decades of working with them, sparking a bidding war for his services which was eventually won by Aston Martin.

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His last Red Bull car, the RB20, failed to win the constructors' championship in 2024 as McLaren and Ferrari made some huge in-season improvements to finish first and second respectively.

Newey has now revealed in an interview with AMuS that he had begun to grow worried about the team's performance all the way back at the end of the 2023 season, but that his colleagues appeared less concerned.

Max Verstappen drove Newey's cars to four drivers' titles

The designer signed on with Aston Martin after leaving Red Bull

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What happened to Red Bull in 2024?

"Through the very last stages of 2023 I would say the car was starting to become more difficult to drive and of course Max could handle that, it didn't suit him, but he could handle it. Checo couldn't.

"So in 2023 we also started to see more of a difference in performance between Max and Checo that carried into the first part of 2024, but the car was still quick enough to be able to cope with it.

"It was something I was starting to become concerned about but not many of the people in the organisation seemed to be very concerned about it.

"What I can see from the outside, but I don't know, the guys at Red Bull, and this is no criticism but I think they just perhaps through lack of experience kept going in that same direction and the problem became more and more acute to the point that even Max found it difficult to drive."

Red Bull Aston Martin Adrian Newey