This article was contributed by Henk Ormel, In reaction to our livestream of 30-04-2024, who has been a much beloved member of our community at Wheel Sports and an incredibly insightful eye for feedback on technical matters.
It is stated by several sources Newey didn’t have a heavy influence on the current Red Bull cars but Pierre Waché was the influential force. This diminishes the importance of Newey and I don’t know why this is happening.
When the rules for the venturi cars were finalized, Newey got to work on the suspension. He knew as one of the few how important a stabil aero platform is for a venturi car. He also knew as one of the few the dangers of porpoising. The RB18 was a quite good car compared with the competition.
After the rule change for the season 2023 the suspension had to be done all over again. It reacts visibly very differently to aeroload than the 2022 post Barcelona suspension does. It even somewhat looks like active suspension. There the genius of Adrian Newey shows.
Adrian Newey is already several years not working directly for Red Bull but his company freelances for Red Bull. This became clear in the costcap saga. His company freelances also for the Oracle boat design team. It does the same for the classic hardtop racing Jag which his son races in the Saint Mary Trophy at Goodwood.
Adrian Newey does not stop what he is loving the most i.e. finding engineering solutions for occuring problems. Adrian Newey isn’t an employé on the payroll. He leases his company to certain projects. So he is not retiring soon. Only when he dies will he retire.
The statement of Adrian Newey that he wishes to work with Lewis and Alonso was said in the Racing Bulls podcast last year. He stated also that that ship had sailed a while ago. So Newey leaving his family Red Bull is not that straight forward. Family stays family in the smooth and rough times. My estimation is that after Max Verstappen connected his future in public to the forced departure of Helmut Marko the piece has somewhat returned. Both camps like winning very much and Verstappen provides winning in that car.
The Newey rumor comes from AMuS which is rooted deep in Mercedes country. F1 Insider also dropped a few rumors which is also rooted deep in Mercedes country. For Motorsport. DE the same is valid. Then Ralf Schumacher, he is German and never liked the Austrian outfit particularly. This dislike increased when his nephew didn’t get a spot in SAT when he was dropped by Ferrari and Haas.
The cultural differences between Austria and Germany run very deep. Bavaria (run by Pruisia right now) was for a long time the little brother of Austria-Hungary. Cultural changes take a long time. Those differences come to the surface again when losing.
All rumors regarding Red Bull since this winter have not been proven correct. All outlets jumped on or created more rumors to have something to gossip about in the off season. Nowadays the gossip season starts on monday after a GP and fizzles out on friday before a GP is run on sunday again. Until the Newey one is confirmed by Red Bull, Adrian Newey or
the eventual team he is joining it is just another rumor. The Adrian Newey rumors follow the same path as the firing of Horner and the departure of Alonso to Mercedes did.
Edit.
It is now confirmed Adrian Newey is leaving so I spoke before my turn.