Martin Brundle would be “amazed” if “competitive animal” Adrian Newey doesn't join another F1 team

Former F1 driver turned pundit Martin Brundle says he would be “amazed” if Adrian Newey doesn’t join another team after leaving Red Bull.

Newey, considered the greatest car designer in F1 history, has negotiated an early exit from his contract that will see him depart Red Bull early next year after nearly two decades at the Milton Keynes-based team.

The 65-year-old design legend has already indicated that he is likely to join another F1 team following his Red Bull exit.

And Sky Sports F1 commentator Brundle believes Newey will want to get involved in another project in time for the 2026 regulation overhaul.

“I think he will,” Brundle told the Beyond the Grid podcast. “He’s a competitive animal. I think he’ll get a little bit bored. The 2026 regulations have got Adrian written all over them.

“That’s not to downplay all the other people, like [Red Bull Technical Director] Pierre Wache, and there’s a lot of very clever people there.

“It’s wrong to say one person can make the difference, but I’ll guarantee that along the way Adrian just tipped a couple of things and came up with some ideas that made the difference.

“[It’s] just the experience, the nous and the feel for what you need, so I would be surprised if down the road he doesn’t have some kind of affiliation with a Formula 1 team. I’d be amazed, in fact.”

Newey has been heavily linked with a switch to Ferrari, where he would join forces with Lewis Hamilton, having previously turned down approaches from the Italian outfit at least three times at various points in his career.

Asked about Newey’s next possible destination, Brundle said: “You’ve got to have a lot of money and a lot of resource, otherwise there’s no point having Adrian Newey. If you sit him in the office but you don’t have the goods around him and the funds to use his ideas, then there’s no point.

“All the teams are like, ‘No, we’re happy as we are, thank you very much’. A, because they might not get him. And B, because they don’t want to upset the team they’ve already got in place.

“Clearly, Mercedes, Aston Martin, McLaren, Ferrari will be looking and trying to get him somehow. It’s a double-edged sword, because if you can get Adrian’s experience and skills, then you’ve got him and somebody else doesn’t have him. So, they’ll all be trying like crazy. If they’re not, then they should be.”