After announcing he would be leaving Red Bull Racing, Adrian Newey has a plethora of options on the table before taking his next step and Ted Kravitz believes that retiring is unlikely to be in his thoughts just yet.
It’s understandably a huge loss for Red Bull who are losing the most successful designer in the history of Formula 1 in the first quarter of 2025.
Speaking on Ted’s Notebook, Kravitz shared why he thinks Adrian Newey will still be in the Formula 1 paddock after his time with the Milton Keynes-based team ends.
Ted Kravitz shares why he doesn’t think Adrian Newey is retiring after Red Bull exit
At the end of last season, the thought of Adrian Newey leaving Red Bull after the most dominant season in Formula 1 history was unthinkable.
However, next season Newey could be sitting on a rival team’s pit wall preparing a different car for the new 2026 regulations.
Red Bull are trying to downplay his exit and Max Verstappen is understood to be a big believer in Pierre Wache, who has been suggested as a potential replacement for Newey within the team.
However, the more uncertainty that surrounds the team, the more likely it is that Verstappen’s head is turned by Toto Wolff and his offer to the Dutchman of joining Mercedes.
Kravitz believes that it’s very unlikely that Newey will be retiring when his Red Bull contract comes to an end.
In fact, it’s his contract situation that makes him feel that way…
Red Bull contract key signal for Adrian Newey’s next step
Explaining Newey’s potential next move, Kravitz said: “Adrian Newey is leaving and that is despite what you might hear about, ‘Oh, he’s been threatening to leave for ages, he’s been thinking of going for ages’, it’s still a hit.
“So, if you just think about it. You’re working in this team and your technical talisman is going, two words you hear – Adrian’s going.
“Now, how do you feel about that? That he’s going or might take a year out to sail the world or go campervanning around Europe with his delightful wife Amanda is neither here nor there.
“But, what’s the strange thing about it is that he had a contract until the end of 2025.
“And then he had a year’s non-compete clause, a gardening leave clause if you want, to the end of 2026.
“So, if he was just retiring, and going on holidays and going on walkabouts and going sailing, then he wouldn’t have minded what his gardening leave period said, makes no difference to him.
“But, clearly he wanted to negotiate that down, which he did with the help of Eddie Jordan, who’s now his manager and he’s negotiated.
“And how Christian Horner and Helmut Marko and whoever is in charge of these things at Red Bull allowed Adrian Newey to successfully negotiate an early release from his gardening leave clause, I don’t know.
“Now Adrian can work for somebody else, another Formula 1 team, pretty much from the day that he leaves Red Bull in April 2025.”
Where could Adrian Newey end up on the Formula 1 grid?
If Kravitz is right and Newey isn’t going to retire, then he has plenty of options on the table.
There’s a lot of talk that Ferrari may have already convinced Newey to make a long-awaited switch to the Italian team.
He’s come close to joining them on a couple of occasions but may finally get the chance to work alongside Lewis Hamilton.
Aston Martin have also made Newey a huge offer and that may be tempting if he wants to stay in the UK.
New outfit Audi could even be an option for Newey and he’s never been shy of taking on a new challenge.
Whatever happens, it’s very unlikely that Formula 1 has seen the last of Adrian Newey.
The post ‘The strange thing’: Ted Kravitz now shares why he believes Adrian Newey isn’t retiring after Red Bull exit appeared first on F1 Oversteer.