Red Bull rivals dealt Adrian Newey blow after Helmut Marko reveals KEY contract details

Marko, Verstappen, socials — Photo: © IMAGO

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Red Bull rivals dealt Newey blow after Marko reveals KEY contract details

Adrian Newey will depart Red Bull in 2025

Kevin McKenna

Thursday 16 May 2024 09:13 Updated: 12:27

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Red Bull boss Helmut Marko has delivered a blow to the team's Formula 1 rivals hoping to capitalise on the departure of Adrian Newey.

The design guru's announcement that he would leave the reigning constructors' champions in early 2025 caused shockwaves throughout the sport, given the extraordinary success he enjoyed with the Milton-Keynes based squad.

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Since joining the team in 2006, the 65-year-old has played a pivotal role in Red Bull collecting 13 championship wins across two dominant spells, designing cars for the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, who is on course for a fourth consecutive world drivers' title

Speculation over the future of the man widely regarded as the sport's greatest-ever designer has been mounting since the announcement, with the likes of Ferrari strongly linked with making a move to secure his signature.

Adrian Newey has been linked with a switch to Ferrari

Newey has played a key role in Red Bull's recent dominance in F1

Red Bull rivals warned

While admitting Newey's exit will have a 'painful' impact at Red Bull, Marko has issued a warning to those hoping for a 'domino effect', insisting that the engineer had already stepped back from his day-to-day involvement in operations, a move which did not destabilise their dominance of the sport.

“I have already said that he is an outstanding designer personality who has somehow lost his fire,” Marko wrote in a column for Speedweek.

“I’m personally very sorry about this, but we have a very broad and well-positioned technical team over the years, with experienced people like Pierre Waché and younger people like Enrico Balbo or Ben Waterhouse.

“We are well-positioned in all areas and I see it as wishful thinking on the part of the competition that there will be a domino effect - so far, there are no signs of this happening.

“You also have to remember that he was no longer with the company on a day-to-day basis. He was more the one who oversaw the whole thing."