Adrian Newey could walk away from an eye-watering salary of at least £10million per year if his mooted Red Bull departure materialises, it has been claimed.
Newey has been a central figure behind Red Bull‘s success since arriving from McLaren in 2006, designing World Championship-winning cars for the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
Adrian Newey set to walk away from £10million Red Bull salary?
Red Bull currently stand as F1’s dominant force, with Verstappen alone winning 48 of the last 71 races since the start of his maiden-title winning campaign in 2021.
Despite agreeing a new long-term deal less than a year ago, rumours this week claimed Newey has signalled his intention to leave Red Bull.
The reports of Newey’s potential departure have come amid the current uncertainty surrounding the Red Bull team, with rumours over recent weeks claiming Aston Martin and Ferrari have both attempted to capitalise on the situation by presenting contract offers to the 65-year-old.
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Responding to the rumours, a Red Bull spokesperson told PlanetF1.com: “Adrian is contracted until at least the end of 2025. We are unaware of him joining any other team.”
And Newey’s value to Red Bull has been revealed, with the Daily Mail claiming that ‘conservative estimates’ suggest the F1 design guru was rewarded with a £10m-per-year deal in early 2020.
The report adds that the true figure is believed to be ‘a lot more.’
The claims about Newey’s salary come after a clip resurfaced of Newey declaring his affection for Red Bull in December 2023, remarking that leaving the team at this stage of his career would be like “walking out on your family.”
In an appearance on the Formula For Success podcast recorded late last year, Newey also revealed his admiration of Ferrari – and admitted he had come close to joining the Scuderia on three separate occasions over the course of his illustrious career.
He said: “Ferrari is this magic brand that, in all honesty, probably everybody in motor racing is always fascinated by and tempted to join if they’re offered the opportunity.
“I’ve been approached – and come close – three times now. One of those was in IndyCars way back.
“It’s an amazing brand. It has all this mystique about it. It’s effectively the Italian national team, with all the pros and cons that come with that.
“The cons are that if you don’t do a great job, you are absolutely berated and torn apart. Of course, if you do a good job, then you’re a national hero. So that brings all its own pressures.
“But I have to try to take the passion side out of it and approach it from an engineering side.
“The teams I’ve worked for, I’ve hugely enjoyed and of course Red Bull because that’s a team I’ve been at, more or less, from the start.
“It’s a team that I’ve been very centrally involved in developing the engineering side of the team, so it’s a team I kind of feel comfortable with. We all know how we work.
“I suppose to change now – I’m not saying I would never, ever change because you should never say that – but it would be like walking out on your family, because that’s what it’s become.”
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Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
