Adrian Newey, the esteemed F1 designer, continues to play a pivotal role in Red Bull Racing’s pursuit of a third consecutive championship in 2024.
Working closely alongside Technical Director Pierre Wache and their team on the development of the new RB20 car, Newey’s position as Chief Technical Officer involves responsibilities beyond the Formula 1 project, allowing him to take on extra curricula activities while remaining very much committed to Red Bull’s success on the race track.
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Having attended the season’s first races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Newey’s planned absence from the Australian Grand Prix led to speculation regarding a potential reduction in his F1 team duties.
Rumours suggested that Newey could shift to focusing solely on Red Bull’s RB17 hypercar project, spurred by concerns related to Formula 1’s budget cap and internal team politics.
Nonetheless, reliable sources say there’s no truth to the rumours of Newey changing his role. He is set to continue his involvement with the RB20 project and is expected to make his trackside return at the upcoming 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.
Despite ongoing speculation about his career in Formula 1, Newey has consistently shown a strong dedication to the sport. He has admitted that the thought of reducing his involvement only crossed his mind in 2014, a challenging period for Red Bull due to the power unit’s disadvantage compared to the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes.
“I joined Red Bull [to build a technical team],” he said. “It was a bit of a career risk, but I wanted to again be involved with the development of the team at the start.
“So, having been involved in the start and been involved with Christian and Helmut [Marko] in how we developed the team, then why would I want to walk away from that?
“The only time it came close was in 2014 and that was for completely different reasonings. It was very simply at that time we had a power unit which wasn’t performing, which happens of course. And there didn’t seem to be a huge desire from the manufacturer [Renault] at the very top level to put the investment in to turn that around.
“So, you’re then in a bit of a depressing position where, as we all know, to win championships you’ve got to have the three key factors of driver, chassis and engine – and if one of those is weak you won’t win…”
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