Adrian Newey, one of the most celebrated designers in Formula One history, is to leave Red Bull in 2025, the F1 champions said on Wednesday.
Newey joined Red Bull ahead of their second F1 season in 2006 and has been crucial helping to turn the operation from midfield runners to world champions.
"My dream was to be an engineer in Formula One, and I’ve been lucky enough to make that dream a reality. For almost two decades it has been my great honour to have played a key role in Red Bull Racing’s progress from upstart newcomer to multiple title-winning team," Newey said.
With Newey-designed cars, Red Bull have dominated the sport in recent years and claimed six constructors’ titles and seven drivers’ titles between Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen respectively.
However, after almost 20 years with Red Bull, Newey will be departing from his Chief Technical Officer role in the first quarter of 2025.
"I feel now is an opportune moment to hand that baton over to others and to seek new challenges for myself," he said.
Red Bull said that Newey will shift focus to final development and delivery of Red Bull’s first-ever hypercar, the RB17.
"He will remain involved in and committed to this exciting project until its completion. We’d like to thank Adrian for our achievements in the time that we have worked together so far," Red Bull said.
It's unclear whether Newey will return to F1 in the future, but he has been recently linked to a job at Ferrari.
Newey’s departure also places further pressure on Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who earlier this year was investigated due to his conduct with a female employee.
He was cleared of the accusations, but the situation led to tensions with top figures at Red Bull, including team adviser Helmut Marko and Verstappen's father Jos, who said at the time that Horner to leave the team.
Several reports said that the affair also caused a rift between Newey and Horner, and that's why the engineer decided to leave the F1 champions.