Lewis Hamilton has quashed suggestions that Red Bull could be undone by Adrian Newey’s departure, after all, he leaves behind a strong design team.
After weeks of speculation, Red Bull announced on Wednesday that Newey, the design guru applauded for Red Bull’s success in F1’s ground-effect aerodynamic era, would leave the team “after the first quarter of 2025”.
‘It’s not one person, it’s a whole team who do the job’
Until then, though, his focus will be on the RB17 hypercar project with his Formula 1 involvement having come to an immediate end, barring his attendance at a few grands prix.
But any suggestion that his departure could weaken Red Bull’s design team has been quashed by Hamilton, who is adamant it is not a “one-person” job.
“I think we just always need to remember that there’s a lot of people in the background and there is not one key person,” said the seven-time World Champion who lost the 2021 Drivers’ title to Max Verstappen in a Newey-designed RB16B.
“It’s not one person, it’s a whole team of people who do the job.
“So you can imagine for all the amazing experience that he brings to the team, the people that he works with will continue to do an amazing job.
“And I don’t anticipate Red Bull not continuing to build great cars moving forward.”
The design guru’s influence will also be felt on future Red Bull F1 cars with F1 expected to continue with ground-effect aerodynamics even into the next generation of cars that will be introduced in 2026.
Hamilton can attest to what that means having driven a McLaren in 2007 that was an evolution of one of Newey’s cars.
“Well, just from my perspective, when I joined McLaren, I think it was an evolution of his car,” he said. “I think I got there just after he left.
“So that car had evolved from a concept that he had worked on. So I felt privileged that I’d had the chance to touch something that he had worked on.”
He added: “Racing against a team that he’s been so heavily a part of through the years has been a massive challenge.”
Speaking to the media a day after the Newey announcement, Sergio Perez talked up the design department that the Briton leaves behind.
“It’s obviously I will say not ideal someone like Adrian [leaving]. He has been tremendous to our team, to our organisation,” he said.
“I think Red Bull, it’s in a great place, has a very good, very strong organisation with Pierre [Waché, technical director], with Enrico [Balbo, aerodynamics chief], with Ben [Waterhouse, head of performance engineering].
“I think the whole aero group is very strong and we’re just looking forward to the future.
“I think you have seen in the past with these big teams, big names, when they leave, they will always succeed. It doesn’t matter. It’s not down to one single individual.
“It’s a whole organisation and I think Christian [Horner, team principal] has done a great job in sort of preparing for the next generation of what’s going to happen to Red Bull.”