Mercedes won’t discount Adrian Newey move but ‘not waiting for a messiah’

Toto Wolff has conceded no team would “discount” signing legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey, but insists Mercedes are not “waiting for a messiah”.

65-year-old Newey will be free to join a new team in early 2025 following his decision to leave Red Bull, having spent almost two decades at the team and helped them win all 13 of their world championships.

Newey, considered the greatest F1 car designer of all time, has been heavily linked with Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin and Williams in the months which have followed the announcement of his impending departure.

Asked if Mercedes would be interested in securing Newey’s services, Wolff told Sky Sports F1: “No team can discount Adrian.

“But he needs to fit into the organisation and he needs to want it. So, I think, you’ve got to always look at opportunities.

“It’s not like, today, we are waiting for a messiah.”

Wolff admitted that Mercedes took some “wrong” decisions ahead of the 2022 regulation overhaul but is confident the team are now on the right path after making encouraging recent progress.

“Formula 1 is about physics,” he explained. "An engineer would say ‘it is simple, change the physics of the car’. But the truth is that humans make decisions.

“I believe the decisions we took were partially wrong in 2021. We have remedied that. We have changed the structure - people left, people joined.

“We have diligence in how our meetings are organised. This is the main reason we have made a step forward.”

Wolff added: "The days you lose are the days that your competitors regret because you learn the most.

“It was bad, at times, but important to develop the team into the next phase.”

George Russell capitalised on a collision between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix to claim Mercedes’ first win since 2022.