Adrian Newey has admitted one aspect of the current F1 rules left him ‘depressed’ upon first reading. Newey and Red Bull have been the dominant force in the sport since the start of 2022.
Last year’s RB19 was the most dominant car in F1 history, winning 21 of the 22 Grands Prix in the hands of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Its successor, the RB20, also holds a commanding advantage over the field.
But speaking to Racing News 365, Newey admitted that he had concerns over the current generation of cars. The sport embraced a new aerodynamic profile for the start of 2022, one would that harness ground effect.
Red Bull were able to halt an era of Mercedes domination in 2021, at least in the drivers’ championship, as Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari initially challenged them at the beginning of the following year but they soon streaked clear.
With three wins from the first four races in 2024, the Bulls are expected to dominate until the next major rules change in 2026. That reset will encompass both the engines and the chassis as the sport ditches the MGU-H and moves towards lighter cars.
What concerned Adrian Newey about F1 regulations
65-year-old F1 veteran Newey, who’s won titles across three different decades with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, says he generally welcomes rule changes. However, he feared that there was too little ‘freedom’ in the 2022 proposals.
In the end, there was a necessary ‘relaxation’ and teams adopted different approaches. Mercedes, for example, infamously attempted a ‘zeropod’ concept that they later had to abandon.
He said: “From a design point of view, I enjoy regulation changes, providing those regulation changes give a reasonable amount of freedom. I must admit, when I first saw these current regulations that I was quite depressed by them, they looked extremely prescriptive.
“Luckily, there was a bit of a relaxation towards the end. But actually, once we got into the detail, combined with that relaxation, there’s been a reasonable amount of freedom within them – as you saw particularly early in 2022, there were lots of different solutions.“
Will Adrian Newey leave Red Bull?
Ahead of 2026, Newey is inevitably attracting significant interest from Red Bull’s competitors. There were rumours that Christian Horner wanted to redeploy him to the team’s hypercar project, but the team have since dismissed those.
Aston Martin, who have just tied down double world champion Fernando Alonso to a new contract, appear to be leading the race. Lawrence Stroll has recently ‘upped the ante’ as he plots a sensational coup.
But Ferrari are providing competition ahead of Hamilton’s arrival at the team in 2025. Newey has previously rejected three offers from the Scuderia but the opportunity of working with the seven-time world champion may appeal.
His future could have significant ramifications for reigning title holder Verstappen. If he leaves Milton Keynes, then the Dutchman could follow, and that gives Red Bull an extra incentive to fight for him, as if they needed it.
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