Christian Horner slaps Adrian Newey with Red Bull ban that could impact Lewis Hamilton
Adrian Newey could link up with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari next year.
Christian Horner has revealed that Adrian Newey will not be attending most Red Bull meetings or reviewing any data for the rest of the season. Newey will leave Red Bull in early 2025 after two decades on their books and has been widely tipped to join Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari.
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Newey is widely regarded as one of the greatest technical masterminds in F1 history and his impending exit will come as a major blow to Red Bull. In a bid to prevent him from taking sensitive information to Ferrari or another team, he has been banned from attending certain meetings and viewing performance data.
Horner explained after the Miami Grand Prix that Red Bull have been forced to impose restrictions on Newey, who will continue to work on the RB17 hypercar until his departure.
"In Miami, Newey did not participate in any briefings over the weekend except for the one on strategy," said Horner. "He does not have access to any data and is not designing any pieces.
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"He is now focused on the RB17 until the end of his contract. Between now and the end of the year he will participate in some races, mainly those where we have RB17 customers."
Newey is yet to confirm his next move but has been linked with a potential switch to Ferrari, who have tried and failed to secure his services on a number of occasions. He previously told Sky Sports F1 that he rejected them three times, with the first two offers coming in the 1980s and 1990s.
A third offer was made shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic, with Newey explaining in his book How To Build A Car that Ferrari were prepared to more than double his Red Bull salary.
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"I didn't want to walk out of Red Bull because it feels like home and I'd been heavily involved from the start with Christian [Horner] building the team up from the ashes of Jaguar to where it was today," he recalled.
"I didn't want to walk out on that but equally I didn't want to be in a position where we were operating with one hand tied behind our back in the engine department. It was a very difficult decision.
"Ferrari came up with an incredible offer, very attractive, and it caused me a lot of sleepless nights deciding what to do and who to go for. In the end, it would have felt wrong to walk out on Red Bull."
