F1 News: Ted Kravitz admits amazement at Adrian Newey win in Red Bull exit

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Kravitz admits amazement at Newey win in Red Bull exit

Adrian Newey has managed to change his period of gardening leave

By Sam Cook.

Thursday 9 May 2024 00:00

Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz has been left stunned by the negotiation skills of Red Bull's outgoing technical director Adrian Newey.

Newey is set to leave the team following 18 years of association, and a total of 13 world championship titles.

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Throughout his phenomenal Formula 1 career that has also incorporated championship-winning spells at both McLaren and Williams, the legendary designer has claimed 25 world championships, with two more set to come this season thanks to Max Verstappen and Red Bull's current dominance.

Newey's most recently-designed masterpiece, the RB20, is continuing on the record-breaking record of last season's RB19, a car that team principal Christian Horner described as the 'most successful car in F1 history.'

Adrian Newey will leave Red Bull in 2025

Adrian Newey has won 13 championships with Red Bull

Newey leaving sooner than expected

The 65-year-old did have a contract that was due to see him stay with Red Bull until the end of the 2025 season, and a period of non-competing gardening leave was supposedly one of the clauses in his contract, to stop the genius designer from working for a rival until the start of 2027.

However, Red Bull confirmed that Newey would leave the team in the first quarter of 2025, and it's understood that he now does not have a period of gardening leave to undertake.

Speaking on his 'Notebook' show during the Miami Grand Prix weekend, Kravitz revealed his surprise at Newey and his manager (former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan)'s shrewd negotiating skills.

“Adrian Newey is leaving, and that is, despite what you may hear about ‘oh well he’s been threatening to leave for ages, he’s been thinking of going for ages' it’s still a hit," Kravitz admitted.

“So just think about it. You’re working in this team and your technical talisman is going, two words you hear ‘Adrian going' and how do you feel about that? You feel ‘wow, Adrian is going.'

“Now, that he’s going or might take a year out or sail the world or go camping around Europe with his delightful wife Amanda is neither here nor there, but what’s the strange thing about it is that he had a contract until the end of 2025 and then he had a year’s non-compete clause, a gardening clause if you want, until the end of 2026 so, if he was just retiring, and going on holidays and going on walk about and going sailing, then he wouldn’t have minded what his gardening period said, it makes no difference to him.

Ted Kravitz has become a fixture of Sky Sports' coverage

“But clearly he wanted to negotiate that down with the help of Eddie Jordan, who’s now his manager, Adrian Newey’s friend and manager that’s what Adrian calls EJ, and he’s negotiated and how Christian Horner and Helmut Marko and whoever’s in charge of these things at Red Bull allowed Adrian Newey to successfully negotiate an early release from his gardening leave clause, I don’t know, but he did.

"Well done EJ, still got the negotiating skills, and now Adrian can work for somebody else, another Formula 1 team or anyone else that he wants to pretty much from the day that he leaves Red Bull in April 2025.

“Well done Adrian, so yeah we’ll see what happens… But everything stays the same, okay, according to Christian Horner, everything stays the same. Yes, our genius talisman/technical director is leaving, but everything stays the same, right? Everything stays the same. Nothing’s changing, it’s all business as usual.”

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 Formula 1 Christian Horner Adrian Newey Ted Kravitz