F1 Giants Debate: Can Red Bull Sustain Its Edge Without Newey?
May 10 - Adrian Newey's departure will not hurt Red Bull - at least in 2025.
That is the view of two well-known former Formula 1 team bosses, Gunther Steiner and Gian Carlo Minardi.
Some are predicting that Red Bull is already beginning to lose its dominant edge in 2024, with Ferrari and McLaren winning races this season so far amid the energy drink-owned outfit's internal problems.
That power struggle and the Christian Horner scandal have cost Red Bull the renowned design and technical talents of Newey, who has already stepped back from F1 matters before departing the organisation completely in the early months of 2025.
Newey has even negotiated a very short period of 'gardening leave', after which he will apparently be eligible to join another team - perhaps Ferrari, Aston Martin or Mercedes - as early as next year.
"I find it strange that he can start working somewhere else already next year," Steiner told Sky Italia.
But while he thinks "all dominant periods" come to an end eventually in F1, Red Bull can keep winning at least in the short-to-medium term.
"The Red Bull era will come to an end in 2026 at the latest," said Steiner, "but at the moment they are in good shape.
"In the short term it won't make a big difference because the concept is already in place," he added.
Indeed, Newey admitted in Miami last weekend - where he was excluded from Red Bull's technical meetings and data - that he has worked on the 2024 car's main weaknesses so that the 2025 car should be even better.
Steiner said Red Bull will not overly notice Newey's absence either in 2024 or in 2025 - the last year of the current regulations era.
"I haven't given up hope that there will be a few more fights this year," he said. "But the engineers at Red Bull are already getting the best performance from this very good car. They don't need Adrian for that.
"He is there to plan for the future, not to oversee what happens on the track. So it will have an impact on 2026."
Indeed, the chassis, aerodynamics and engine regulations are being completely and radically overhauled for 2026.
"At the moment all the teams are purely focused on the future, 2026, practically taking Red Bull's success and supremacy for granted," said Gian Carlo Minardi, a former F1 team owner and boss and now head of the Imola race promoter.
"Red Bull remains the reference car, even if they seem to have lost the serenity that has constantly characterised them in recent seasons, especially due to the well-known internal issues they are having."
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Yep
Definitely in the short-term, but a little further forward & especially into the next technical regulation cycle is another matter.
Red Bull has had their time leading the others, just as McLaren, Williams, Lotus, Brabham, Tyrell, Ferrari, et al, all did in the past.
Difficult to say which team will depose them, however, Ferrari and McLaren are knocking on the door. Would Adrian Newey make a difference to Aston or Benz? Time will tell, if he goes to one of those.
As the saying goes ~ Nothing lasts forever!
I think they can. I don't think Newey will go to another team and just retire. The man has nothing to proof anymore. He is the best race car designer of all time and probably will never be beaten. The guys who worked with him, will have harited his knowledge by now and are the people who will continue the succes. It will be more of a problem that they won't have the Honda power unit...
I agree, hell retire, making another team great will take 5 yrs, I can imagine his wife not being to chuffed with another 5yrs