Why Red Bull couldn't stop Adrian Newey quitting its F1 team

it's official Adrien yui is leaving Red Bull Scott and Ed are here with me to work this out and pick through it Scott I can't believe I've just said those words this is something that until this story started to break what about a week ago I never thought we'd see this day how on Earth has it come to this yeah it's definitely one that seems incredibly surprising and you're right you kind of can't believe it when it comes out but then actually when you start to piece together what's happened behind the scenes and you start reflecting on things over the last year or so and even Way Beyond that it does actually start to make sense a lot of people probably don't know this I wasn't actually massively um aware of this until recently but Nei actually came very close to leaving red boy a year ago he did a a new contract about this time 12 months back um which didn't allay the concerns that he had at the time but kind of pushed them down the road a little bit because it gave him I think a little bit more working Freedom bit more control of his own hours and he could he's always had or more recently has had this ability to kind of come and go as as as he pleased but maybe I think that was emphasized even more in in this new contract but what there were some underlying issues he he didn't like the fact that he felt he wasn't getting the the credit that he deserved for his um stature his experience his contribution to to Red Bull's success he didn't like the way Red Bull was kind of being set up Pier vaset as the technical director and that kind of group getting all of the plaudits uh I I know that he was a bit um he was a bit unhappy with the direction F1 was going in general this kind of less engineering less racing focused more about the spectacle loads of marketing stuff just moved away from what he wants F1 to be so there was all of this stuff swirling anyway it was kind they put a pin in it a year ago but it's flared up again this year because all of that stuff is still relevant and then there's some other stuff on top of that like the wider Red Bull political power struggle in the background destabilizing thing and of course the Christian Herer controversy this year which neie we stand personally has an issue with in terms of How It's been handled probably Herer himself and that's brought everything to the surface piled a bunch of stuff on top and the end is what we have now something that can't be reconciled and obviously that covers very much what's happened over the past year 18 months but of course this has been bubbling under with Nei for a long time he wasn't that Keen going back a decade on the hybrid regulations he's always had interest in other things outside of Formula 1 often citing the fact he didn't like the direction so this is entirely in ke keeping with the personality and character I think of Adrian Nei if he doesn't like a situation he's in whether it's within a team within the wider F1 ecosystem or combination of the both he will take action on it he's always been interested in doing other things as well remember back when he originally almost moved to Jaguar which was before the eventual move he went to that when he went to that team and it's Red Bull form one of the reasons he stayed at McLaren was said to be the potential to get involved in other projects for example americ America cup yachting so he's someone who is a legend of Formula 1 but there's more to him than just Formula 1 as well he won't stay with Formula 1 through thick and thin although we'll find out exactly what his future holds down the line yeah hopefully he's not gone from Formula 1 forever but Ed I'm fascinated by the thing that Scott pointed out about the kind of who gets the credit for Red Bull success we always know when you know any when there's any success out there everybody wants a piece of the credit everybody wants be to be the person responsible for it but where do you think where do you think this lies with is new The Man Behind Red Bull's success or is it the wider team at Red Bull or is it someone particular at Red Bull like how do you see through all that well the answer is it's everything really no one person even someone as great a genius as AJ Nei can do it all but NE he was vital because as we've talked about on podcasts on videos in our written stuff on the race over the years years the way he's used is unique he's not 24/7 NOS to the grindstone but he injects that creativity those ideas that was essential in producing a car that works so well at the start of the current regulations cycle he designed the suspension himself he understood conceptually the importance of not just gunning for Peak downforce numbers from the floor because you can get ey watering downforce numbers but you need that to work in the real world and give away a little for something that can actually operate and won't have pping and bouncing and that kind of kind of thing that's the kind of contribution he could make he wasn't doing the the hard graft the grinding through of the design process but that wasn't what he was there for he was injecting those ideas that Vision that conceptual value so that makes him essential and it's hard to say how important because we've never seen a Red Bull operating at this level without Adrian yui so it's very very hard to test but he was hugely influential let's not pretend otherwise and we'll get an idea guess of exactly who's responsible or how responsible Nei was what if if he goes to another team and suddenly turns around their fortunes or probably slightly better test that is whether Red Bull Falls to Pieces without him but there will be other variables that come into that and and muddy that picture because Red Bull's going to let's face it sorry to depress everybody but dominate F1 in 2025 as well because it's all just going to be a carryover of this year but then that it's a completely completely different competition in 26 new car rules new engine rules that could be what trips Red Bull up and whether newi is there or not you don't know how they're going to handle that challenge if their own engines going to be up to it so we'll get an idea of how important Nei really was in the in the modern era to to Red Bull but we're still not going to get a definitive answer I do the one thing I would add on sort of how he has fit into this is it's kind of interesting to me because whether it was the that Aston Martin Valkyrie project or the red B RB 17 hyper car New Year has had these things as Ed was talking about that he really does latch on to and get interested in and one of the reasons why he had less day-to-day involvement in the F1 teams CU he wanted to pursue these kind of opportunities if the organization has moved on to facilitate that he's not around and doesn't want to be around all the time he can't then complain that the organization has moved on to facilitate him doing other stuff and therefore other people will get credit so there there's a little bit of a balance and act to go and I'm not trying to say that this is you know new ego running out of control or or anything like that but I I think it's just a function of how a modern F1 Team Works and probably does speak to how unique new he is and what he offers that he was able to exist in this kind of structure in this kind of role for as long as he has well he was an anacronismo but there's no one else like him that's what makes him that trial I guess of whether those creative ideas can come up can be originated within Red Bull there's plenty of very clever intelligent designers there but can they have that step back that capacity to inject those ideas and I think that's something they have to learn as they move on into the post newer year era how do you actually give people the breathing space not to be 24/7 you know turning the handle to grind out the designs Etc and actually have a little bit of time to inject the original thinking that new provided that's the test it's going to be fascinating then to see what happens to Red Bull in a post newe world but Scott what happens to Nei should we expect for example that he's going to turn up in a year or two's time whenever he's free to move in say Ferrari red that is obviously what a lot of people kind of want to see and Adrian neie Lewis Hamilton Dream Team alongside charl lir in Fred's glorious Ferrari era um it would um it would tick a couple of boxes for new he said before he doesn't I don't think he frames them as regrets but a couple of the things that he says he'd have liked to have done in his career is work with Ferrari and work with Lis Hamilton he has the chance now uh to exactly it would be absolutely absolutely perfect but he he clearly has a slightly complex situation to untangle um at Red Bull he has been heavily involved in this rb7 road car project that redel have sunk a lot into and it it's kind of new's baby really if this because this is a big thing if he wants to stay in F1 if it's not just everything he's fed up with and it's just Red Bull that he wants to move away from he's going to want to be getting stuck into the 2026 rules and all the arrow work on that can begin January the 1st 2025 and new he is going to want to be right in the cut and thrust of that but what ridble can't do I assume anyway is if he decides that's it I'm retiring I'm going to go enjoy myself in South in South Africa or I'm going to go and enjoy a different technical pro project or I'm just going to tend to my garden for as long as I want around the world something like that exactly they can't stop him from doing that he could just decide this is it and retire so Ed if we assume then that he doesn't have something lined up he's he's not already signed for for somebody else I'm trying to work out to Word his question where do you think he should go which might be a different question to where do you want him to go well there's there's two Pathways for me I quite like the idea of him just sailing off into the sunset literally given he's got his his boat projects on order and just enjoying the fruits of his labors he will always be someone who's working in some capacity technically I'm sure he can find challenges to to embrace and I think personally he might well enjoy that if he wants to stay in the cut and thrust of F1 then he should obviously go to another team and there are two teams I would like to see him out one is Ferrari for obvious reasons not just because there's that Romanticism about Ferrari can he get Ferrari back on top but also because it's quite exciting what road Car Projects he could get involved with at Ferrari they've got everything there a f a Ferrari new Supercar what a fantastic project that would be the other one I'd like to see which seems a long shot would be Williams if I was the owner of Williams D Capital finish the story exactly Square the circle as it were I would want to offer Nei a stake in the team the stake that Williams didn't offer him almost three decades ago that meant he left get him back in give him a stake and that won't be financially motivated by Nei that will be symbolic he wants to feel like it's his team and he can play a part in rebuilding that team to what it once was I think that challenge is probably unlikely but there will be part of Nei that would actually quite like that so every Formula 1 team will be on the phone to him but what will get him through the door if he does want to continue is the type of challenge he doesn't want lots of money he doesn't even just want a team where you say look you'll have lots of money he wants something very specific to him and I actually think Ferrari and Williams as the long shot are the two ones that offer the obvious newes challenges that he would quite enjoy e

Channel: THE RACE

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Keywords: f1, formula 1, formula one, F1 news, F1 latest, F1 updates, F1 explained, The Race, the-race.com, grand prix, f1 2024, adrian newey, red bull, red bull f1 team, red bull racing, christian horner, max verstappen, why did adrian newey quit red bull, newey leaving red bull, is adrian newey leaving red bull?, adrian newey news, red bull f1 news

Id: 2PW_qTLayuw

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Wed May 01 2024