Following a nearly two-decade stint with Red Bull’s Formula 1 team, famed race-car designer Adrian Newey is stepping down from his role as the squad’s chief technical officer in the first quarter of next year. The 65-year-old Newey is an absolute unicorn when it comes to designing vehicles responsible for winning championships and spanning series that include IndyCar, IMSA, and Formula 1. Over his 40-year career, Newey has developed cars that have won more than 150 grand prix races, 13 World Drivers’ Championships, and 12 World Constructors’ Championships across three Formula 1 teams.
It was Newey who designed the Red Bull RB18 for the 2022 season, a car which had a 77.3 percent win rate for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, helping Red Bull garner both the World Drivers’ Championship and World Constructors’ Championship titles. And in 2023, Newey’s RB19 car had a 95 percent win rate, again repeating success in the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship contests.
Why step away from such smashing success? Reports abounded of a falling out between Newey and the Red Bull team as a result of team principal Christian Horner’s alleged sexual harassment scandal and the resulting internal investigation, though ESPN sources claim Newey’s departure was already known and unrelated to Horner. As team principal, Horner, for his part, has been effusively glowing about Newey to the media, saying, “All of our greatest moments from the past 20 years have come with Adrian’s hand on the technical tiller.”
As for what the future holds, BusinessF1 Magazine claims that back in April of 2024, Newey signed a deal with Scuderia Ferrari for $105 million for the 2025 through 2027 seasons. Lucrative deals aside, here’s a look at Newey’s seven best automotive designs that helped make him such a Formula 1 icon.
