Formula 1 Rumor: Newey to sail into the sunset, possibly retire

It appears like our original theory was correct – that Newey plans to retire and go sailing, not work for another F1 team.

Multiple reports on Tuesday have suggested Newey has formally submitted his resignation after talks with the team.

Newey is said to be likely to remain in his role as chief technical officer until the start of 2025 at the latest, with the 65-year-old reportedly explaining his reasons for his decision in an internal letter.

From what we’ve heard, he is a bit irked by F1 in general, and not real thrilled with the 2026 regulations and the direction the sport is heading. So he could very well retire.

We expect that letter to be a goodbye letter to his ‘racing family.’

Speaking in December 2023, Newey claimed it would be like “walking out on your family” if he were to leave Red Bull at this stage of his career, revealing he had “come close” to joining Ferrari on three separate occasions over the course of his illustrious career.

He told the Formula For Success podcast: “Ferrari is this magic brand that, in all honesty, probably everybody in motor racing is always fascinated by and tempted to join if they’re offered the opportunity.

“I’ve been approached – and come close – three times now. One of those was in IndyCars way back.

“It’s an amazing brand. It has all this mystique about it. It’s effectively the Italian national team, with all the pros and cons that come with that.

“The cons are that if you don’t do a great job, you are absolutely berated and torn apart. Of course, if you do a good job, then you’re a national hero. So that brings all its own pressures.

“But I have to try to take the passion side out of it and approach it from an engineering side.

“The teams I’ve worked for, I’ve hugely enjoyed and of course Red Bull because that’s a team I’ve been at, more or less, from the start.

“It’s a team that I’ve been very centrally involved in developing the engineering side of the team, so it’s a team I kind of feel comfortable with. We all know how we work.

“I suppose to change now – I’m not saying I would never, ever change because you should never say that – but it would be like walking out on your family because that’s what it’s become.”

April 26, 2024

There is a lot of speculation out there as to what team 65-year-old Adrian Newey will work for when he leaves Red Bull. It may be for no one.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

He is contracted by Red Bull through 2025 and with a mandatory 1-year gardening leave, he will not be available to work for another F1 team before 2027 when he is 68 years old.

It looks like Newey plans to sail off into the sunset. Whether he ever returns to F1 after his gardening leave, or stays retired, remains to be seen.

This Boat International article, says, Adrian Newey OBE, chief technical officer of Formula One’s Red Bull Racing team, has chosen British shipyard Oyster to build his new sailing yacht.

Due for delivery in 2024, Newey’s boat will be a 27.4-meter Oyster 885 model that Newey hopes to sail around the world. The F1 tycoon will contribute significantly to the design and engineering of the yacht, “exercising his engineering brain” to create bespoke solutions including a hard-top bimini lined with solar panels. “It’s all personal and that’s the great thing about building a boat from new,” he said in a press release.

Newey will further customize the interior of the 885 to suit his needs and will add a “folding leaf” to the swim platform which will free up an additional dining spot by the water. The standard model features a four-cabin layout with complement for four crew and a compact gross tonnage of 74 packaged inside a Rob Humphreys exterior.

“We are tailoring an existing design, but it’s for a very different outcome,” explained Newey. “The beauty about motor racing is that there’s only two things that count – how quick it is and whether it’s reliable or not. Building a live-aboard sailing yacht is much more subjective in terms of the overall pleasure versus performance and usability.”