Italian publication has claimed Adrian Newey has decided the team with whom he wishes to commit his future to once he leaves Red Bull.
The 65-year-old car designer departs the Red Bull team by early summer 2025, and has been linked with almost every single team on the grid as speculation about his future continues.
Adrian Newey ‘has chosen Ast Martin’wi
While Newey’s position has officially been that he wishes to take a break from F1 when he leaves Red Bull next year – Newey is currently serving a period of soft gardening leave as he continues to work for Red Bull to make the RB17 hypercar a reality, having taken a step back from the F1 side of the operation.
The most persistent of these rumours have been Ferrari and Aston Martin – the Scuderia represents a mythical challenge for anyone who works in F1, and is one of the few major teams Newey has never worked for.
Aston Martin has been going through a transitionary period in recent years, with billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll transforming the resources, facilities, and infrastructure available for the former Jordan/Force India squad, and the Silverstone-based squad now has the ability to offer Newey everything he needs if he wishes for the challenge of helping the upper-midfield team become title challengers.
According to Italian publication Autosprint, this challenge is exactly what Newey has chosen. According to a report in the magazine published on Thursday, Autosprint claims with certainty that Newey – rather than moving abroad to Italy to embed himself within the very different environment of Ferrari – has chosen to stick with a UK-based team.
Curiously, this ties in with what Amazon and former BBC presenter Jeremy Clarkson told Dutch television channel Viaplay over the British Grand Prix weekend.
Appearing on the grid at Silverstone, the Clarkson’s Farm and The Grand Tour star told Viaplay that Newey is currently looking at properties in Oxfordshire.
“Do you want an exclusive? I know Adrian Newey is house-hunting in Oxfordshire, not Maranello,” Clarkson said.
While Clarkson’s words obviously should be taken with a pinch of salt, he does have a long-standing friendship with Newey stemming back to their days together as schoolboys at Repton public school.
According to the report, “the agreement will be announced at the beginning of September because, until August, all contractual ties between the designer and Red Bull prevent any type of communication that is not linked to their employment relationship”.
Autosprint claims Newey has been offered $100 million for a four-year deal, and that he was swayed by his visit to the factory at Silverstone – Newey reportedly visited the factory in early June, with the staff all being sent away to allow for the ‘secret’ visit.
Newey is believed to have been convinced by Stroll’s vision for the team, and the pieces that have been put in place at Silverstone, including the switch to an exclusive Honda power unit supply as the Japanese manufacturer switches over from Red Bull for the new regulations coming in for 2026.
If the report is accurate, it’ll be after the summer break before the move is made official but, until then, Aston Martin continues to play its metaphorical cards close to its metaphorical chest.
“The Aston Martin Aramco F1 team is a very appealing project with Lawrence Stroll’s vision, a state-of-the-art new Technology Campus and exciting partnerships with Aramco and Honda,” a spokesperson told PlanetF1.com.
“Many high-profile individuals across all areas of the team are linked to the project but we don’t have anything to announce.”
