‘Something Adrian Newey wasn’t happy with?’ question raised after Red Bull exit

Legendary F1 team owner Eddie Jordan has hinted there were a number of factors Adrian Newey was potentially “wasn’t happy with” before deciding to leave Red Bull for Aston Martin.

Last week, ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Newey was unveiled as Aston Martin’s new technical partner.

Newey will spearhead Aston Martin’s design team from 2025, while becoming a shareholder in the business.

The 65-year-old’s departure from Red Bull was announced ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, but the true reasons for his exit were unclear.

Newey’s exit coincided with the Christian Horner scandal for inappropriate behaviour, however, he’s insisted it’s been down to wanting a new challenge.

Speaking on the Formula for Success podcast, Jordan, who is Newey’s manager, spoke about the F1 design genius’ decision to leave Red Bull after nearly 20 years.

“Who’s to know? Maybe he saw something a couple of months, a year ago, that was either upsetting him, or some road of technical belief as to where the team should go that he didn’t agree with, which certainly hasn’t come out now,” Jordan said.

“But when you see what’s happening with Max, who’s to say that there was something happening in the car, in the team, that Adrian wasn’t happy with? I don’t know the answer.”

Coincidentally, since Newey’s departure was announced, Red Bull’s form has plummeted.

They’ve lost the lead of the F1 constructors championship, with Max Verstappen struggling to fifth-place in Azerbaijan.

Jordan believes Red Bull have missed Newey’s input mid-season.

“The design and the delivery of the current McLaren car, it’s one particular person. It hasn’t changed, it’s still the same person now it’s leading and winning races. When it was at the back, it was the same car,” he said in response to David Coulthard’s point about Red Bull’s drop in form.

“You and I know that development takes so many finite, little areas and, as a team boss, I would have to listen every single day to both engineers and aerodynamicists, different types of construction in terms of the tyres, how they would want the car to be set up to be done, and so it’s never easy. I have some belief that we all say the car is designed by somebody, and I know Adrian will have designed the car, but in recent times he wasn’t there to see what was in his head was going to evolve into making this a great car.

“The McLaren has turned out to be a great car. After the first six races or so at Red Bull, we would have said: ‘My God, this is an unbelievable car.’ But it’s not an unbelievable car now.I believe that Checo stepped up to the plate and I think that Checo is the speed of that car. We know how great Max is, so let us not be unkind to the team or Max or Checo. That’s where they are with that car.”