Adrian Newey: Outgoing Red Bull designer expects F1 return amid Ferrari interest for 2026 regulations

Adrian Newey expects he will return to Formula 1 in the future after a break from the sport.

Earlier this month, Red Bull confirmed Newey had stepped back from his role of chief technical officer and will work on other projects before fully leaving the company in early 2025.

Lewis Hamilton, who is leaving Mercedes to join Ferrari next season, said at the Miami Grand Prix it would be "amazing" if the Italian team were able to sign Newey.

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Sky Sports News understands Ferrari have approached Newey, with Aston Martin also making a lucrative offer for the 65-year-old. However, Newey is most interested in joining Ferrari and told Sky Sports F1 in Miami that he was "very flattered" by Hamilton's comments.

"If you asked me 15 years ago, at the age of 65 would I seriously be considering changing teams, going somewhere else and doing another four or five years, I would have said 'you're absolutely mad'," Newey said in an interview with his manager and friend Eddie Jordan for Oyster Yachts.

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"A few things happened at once. My dad, who was a vet, he was a huge car enthusiast and he used to tinker around with cars and play with them. That's where things rubbed off on me.

"He wanted to retire when he was 60 and he semi-retired at 62, moved up with my mum to Yorkshire then fully retired at 65.

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"He lost his way a bit in retirement. He lost his mojo and a combination of that and two of the people I respect the most, Bernie Ecclestone and Roger Penske, I asked them both 'what's your secret'. They are phenomenally mentally and physically agile. They both said 'the brain is like a muscle, it needs exercise'.

"I've wanted to work in motor racing as a designer since I was the age of eight or 10. I've been lucky enough to fulfil that ambition, to have got that first job and be in motor racing ever since. Every day has just been a bonus. I just love what I do.

"I'll have a bit of a holiday. As Forrest Gump said at the end of his long run, 'I feel a bit tired at the moment but at some point I'll probably go again'."

Newey, who has designed 14 championship-winning cars, has rejected offers from Ferrari in the past.

While Hamilton has made it clear about what he thinks about Newey, Ferrari and team principal Frederic Vasseur have been less outspoken about him.

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"Adrian is probably the biggest 'palmares' [French word meaning 'prize-winner'] of an engineer in the paddock," said Vasseur ahead of this weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, live on Sky Sports F1.

"We are focused on this season because we have a lot to do. I'm quite pleased with the job the team is doing because step by step we are going in the right direction.

"The mood in the team is positive. We have a positive dynamic and this I want to keep."

Newey: Miami was a strange weekend

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Newey joined Red Bull in 2006, ahead of the team's second F1 campaign, and helped build them into a front-running team from 2009 onwards, when they got their first win.

The team won four consecutive drivers and constructors' titles from 2010 to 2013 and have returned to dominance in recent years since the new ground effect regulations were introduced in 2022.

Newey conducted three speeches after the announcement of his departure, first in the engineering room in Miami, another in the garage and a final talk back at Red Bull's factory in Milton Keynes.

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"Miami was a really strange race for me. The news broke in the press on a very unfortunate day, May 1, 30 years on from the horrible events of Imola [when Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger died].

"It was a very difficult and unfortunate day for that press release to come out.

"The Miami Grand Prix itself was strange because I was there, I was there in a strategy function on the pit wall, but I wasn't involved in any of the engineering decisions or any of the engineering meetings.

"I was just being wheeled around for press really. I never thought it would be big news to be honest, I never really thought about it.

"For it to be in all of the papers and on the telly, it was almost a bit of a shock."

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Sky Sports F1's live Emilia Romagna GP schedule

Friday May 17
8:50am: F3 Practice
10am: F2 Practice
12pm: Emilia Romagna GP Practice One (session starts at 12.30pm)
2pm: F3 Qualifying
2:55pm: F2 Qualifying
3:45pm: Emilia Romagna GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
5:30pm: The F1 Show

Saturday May 18
9am: F3 Sprint
11:15am: Emilia Romagna GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.10pm: Emilia Romagna GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: Emilia Romagna GP Qualifying
5pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
5.30pm: Indy 500 Qualifying

Sunday May 19
7.30am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Emilia Romagna GP build-up
2pm: The EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Emilia Romagna GP reaction
5pm: Ted's Notebook
8pm: Indy 500 Qualifying

Formula 1 heads to Europe as Imola returns to the calendar following last year's cancelled race. Watch the Emilia Romagna GP this weekend, with Sunday's race at 2pm. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership - No contract, cancel anytime