Last Updated on July 23 2024, 12:56 pm
While the clamour over the future of Adrian Newey has somewhat died down in recent weeks, it appears the battle to secure the signature of the F1 car designer guru is now down to just two teams.
The romantic notion of Newey returning to where it all began for him in F1 at Williams appears to be receding, despite the team investing “hundreds of millions” in infrastructure according to team boss James Vowles.
Today the news broke that Aston Martin have offered Newey $100m across four seasons to join the Silverstone based outfit. The report came from F1-insider which is known to be particularly close to Dr. Helmut Marko.
Ferrari lose technical officer
The Italian media too believe Ferrari are out of the running to capture the 65 year old Englishman’s signature with *La Gazzetta dello Sport*, claiming they baulked at the current salary Adrian receives from Red Bull of $10 million a year for just 180 days work.
Further, the report claims Newey was demanding up to 20 engineers of his choice to be recruited but the Ferrari upper echelon decided this was excessive and just not the ‘Ferrari way.’ If true this closes the door on Lewis Hamilton’s dream team link up with Adrian Newey once and for all.
Yet Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur now drops a mischievous hint suggesting Newey could indeed be on his way to Maranello. At the British Grand Prix it was announced that Ferrari’s technical officer Enrico Cardile would be leaving the team to join Aston Martin next year as their Chief Technical Officer.
This was the role held by Newey at Red Bull Racing since he gave up the day to day job of technical director back in 2018. Vasseur claims he will announce Cardile’s replacement in just a matter of weeks, speaking to media in hungary he stated: “I will fill the position during the summer break as it is easiest, but just after the summer break, we will announce the new organisation.”
Vasseur hints at “Newey”
“But at the end of the day, we have a group of more than 200 people working on these cars, and with 200 people, one person [leaving] is not always a drama,” said Vasseur playing down the departure of a senior Ferrari engineer.
Then when pressed as to who may be in line to replace Enrico, Vasseur smiled and replied: “I have a couple of names with five letters.”
Newey will be free from his Red Bull contract come April 2025 and will be in time to give input to any team he joins on the upcoming big regulation change for 2026.
The recruitment of Lewis Hamilton was arranged behind Fred Vasseur’s back since the Frenchman had told the Italian media at Christmas he wanted to retain his current driver line up. Yet the Ferrari boss insists the no blame culture and emphasis on team effort is his priority, rather than highlighting one genius engineering decision.
The Scuderia close the gap
“I always push to explain that individuals are less important than the group, and it is true when you are [signing] someone, and it is when you are losing someone,” he said in Hungary.
“The stability of the group [is important], and that the other people are working very well together, we have showed that we work as a team in the tough moments.
Vasseur points to the fact that Ferrari have closed the gap to Red Bull by a third in the from the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix in 2023 and that is down to “the job done at the factory.”
“It means that I have huge trust in them, but we have to continue as I am not happy with the result, I am not happy to be 20s behind [the winner], but last year [in Hungary], we finished 65s behind.”
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Grim outlook for ferrari in Spa
Ferrari were in reality the fourth quickest team last time out in Hungary, although Charles Leclerc benefitted from Max Verstappen’s late lunge on Hamilton which dropped the world champion to P5.
Next time out in Spa appears another tricky venue for the Scuderia as Carlos Sainz suggests its not a track where they have done well recently.
“Always been one of our toughest tracks as a team,” admitted the Spaniard. “I think we’ve always struggled there in the last two years.
“At the same time, I feel like you never know our low downforce rear wing might work a bit better this year, and we might be a bit more performing.
“So obviously, always optimistic, at the same time realistic.”
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Poor start cost Sainz
Reflecting on missed opportunities in Hungary, Sainz believes his poor start from P4 prevented him having a run at a podium finish
“Obviously disappointed, because the start cost me pretty much the whole race,” Sainz lamented. “First bad start of the season. So it’s not like I can be too hard on myself or on the team.
“We need to analyse whether it was my mistake in the procedure, or whether we just had too aggressive clutch settings for the start. We just paid the price with that wheel spin that then got me off the line. So we’ll have to have a look and analyse it.”
The Ferrari driver claimed in Silverstone that the SF-24 in its current form needs to quickly evolve as the team has seen its results slump since Leclerc won the Monaco Grand Prix.
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Ferrari upgrades “okay”
“It seemed okay,” Sainz revealed about the current ‘platform’ in Budapest but admitted it was difficult to measure the improvements, “because I was always playing catch up.“Especially in the first two stints I had to overtake cars at the beginning of my stints, which always compromises the tyre deg.
“Having to go on the marbles and use the tyre at the beginning of the stints, to use the peak of the tyre, rather than nursing it in, and then being fast in the second half of the stint.
“The only positive was the third stint, quite quick with that Medium, and then it degraded a bit too much at the end, which didn’t allow me to pass Max and Charles there at the end.”
Leclerc claimed P3 last time in Spa Francorhamps having jumped Max Verstappen at the start to take the lead of the race. The day was les successful for Carlos Sainz who attempted a first lap overtake on Oscar Piastri, the damage from which forced the Spaniard to retire the Carter in the race.
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Sainz reveals his remaining F1 option
Carlos Sainz has yet to sign a deal to secure his F1 future and as the summer break approaches the Spaniard now hints at where he may end up. Following the announcement from Ferrari they were replacing Carlos with Lewis Hamilton, Sainz Jnr has performed exceptionally well and sits just eight points behind his favoured team mate Charles Leclerc.
This despite missing out in Saudi Arabia when on Saturday morning the Spaniard was admitted to hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Oliver Bearman stepped up and qualified the Ferrari car in P11 and making progress in the race to finish P7.
Sainz bounced back just two weeks later winning the Australian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen’s Red Bull gave up the ghost. With a race win each the Ferrari duo are equal with five podiums this year, although the challenge of the SF-24 has faltered over the past four race weekends… READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
