Newey not following rumors of his future moves as he focuses on RB17 hypercar

Adrian Newey says he is staying “relatively oblivious” to rumors regarding his next move after leaving Red Bull, while also explaining how he will stay connected to the company through his RB17 hypercar project. The legendary designer and current chief technical officer has announced he will leave Red Bull in early 2025, following nearly two decades with the team. With multiple rivals believed to be keen on securing Newey’s services — Ferrari and Aston Martin two of the most frequent links — the 65-year-old says he has found it simple to not pay attention to speculation surrounding his next move. “That bit very easy, because I don’t really read social media or I don’t particularly read magazines — that’s kind of something I stopped doing a long time ago,” Newey told Red Bull’s podcast “Talking Bull.” “Because back in my Leyton House days, we were a tiny little team, and the first car I did was in 1988 — showing my age, obviously! — and that was a good little car actually. Then in ’89 we completely messed it up, so I went from being this new hero in the Formula 1 paddock on the engineering side to the idiot who was a one-hit wonder. “And I thought, well really, you can’t read the press when it’s good and then get upset about it when it’s poor, so at that point I sort of said, ‘OK, just don’t read the press.’ “Mandy, my wife, she does follow social media. So she keeps me roughly informed of what’s going on, but I’m relatively oblivious to it. I just try to lead my life and not be influenced by it.” Newey says it was a tough call to move on from Red Bull, especially in the midst of the development of the RB17 hypercar that he says he will remain involved with even after his contract has ended. “It was a really difficult decision but one I felt I needed to make for various reasons,” he said. “The positive on it though is that first of all I felt that I needed a bit of a break, and that’s what we’re doing, but also it has meant that then I can fully concentrate on RB17 from now until Q1 of next year. “Then, after I’ve officially stopped with Red Bull — very much an agreement with Christian , with the shareholders, all the senior people at Red Bull — I will continue to be involved with RB17 on email, on phone calls, on dyno tests when we start dyno testing, track testing when we start testing. Because I’ve put too much into this car now as a passion project — much of it in the after hours, evenings or weekends — to walk away from it at this point.”