The Newey effect
The departure of Adrian Newey from Red Bull, which will take place in the first quarter of next year, has rekindled the dreams of the teams who would like to welcome the English designer, even if the latter’s future seems increasingly linked to Ferrari. While some of the grid would be willing to go to great lengths to secure the aerodynamic genius, the situation is different at home Red Bull.
Red Bull in chaos
Following internal tensions in Milton Keynes, the 65-year-old has decided to leave the Anglo-Austrian house, which will create chaos in the team despite the latter’s dominance with the RB20. A belief shared by many, even by a former driver who won two world titles thanks to the McLarens designed by Newey in the second half of the 1990s: Mika Hakkinen.
In his column on Unibetthe Finnish believed “incredible” the decision made by Newey in the first quarter of this world championship: “First of all because of the impact it has and whether key personnel will decide to follow it – has explained – whether it arose due to the team’s internal politics, or whether the team itself found out that he was going to another team like Ferrari. It must also be taken into consideration that the team could remain destabilized by this event. When a team loses a key figure, someone else must fill that role immediately, otherwise it creates confusion“.
Verstappen in Mercedes? Hakkinen believes it
The ‘Flying Finn’ then focused on what the potential consequences could be not only on the team, but also on a driver like Max Verstappenreigning three-time world champion and number one candidate to win this year’s title: “Adrian will have already started to conceive the project for next year, but he will not be present to finalize or deliver it, and what is more Worrying for Max is the prospect of Adrian working for another team within the next year“. It is no coincidence that the Dutchman’s name is starting to get closer and closer to that of Mercedes for 2025. A hypothesis that Hakkinen also it doesn’t rule it out at all.
