Steiner: Newey's Exit Not a Blow to Red Bull Yet

Günther Steiner asserts that Adrian Newey’s departure will not impact Red Bull negatively before 2026, despite his early exit possibly benefiting future F1 team rivals.

Adrian Newey’s departure will not hurt Red Bull—at least not in 2025.

That’s the perspective of a well-known former Formula 1 team boss, Gunther Steiner.

Some, like F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, predict that Red Bull is already beginning to lose its edge in 2024, with Ferrari and McLaren already winning races this season amidst the internal troubles of the Austrian team.

This power struggle and the Christian Horner scandal have cost Red Bull the renowned talents of Newey, who has already stepped back from F1 operations before completely leaving the organization in the early months of 2025.

Newey even negotiated a very short “gardening leave” period which runs concurrently with his work on the RB17 Hypercar, after which he will be able to join another team—possibly Ferrari, Aston Martin, or Mercedes—as early as next year.

“I find it odd that he could start working elsewhere as early as next year,” notes the former Haas F1 director.

“Why not lock him in until the end of his theoretical contract? There are things we do not know. Because if he wants, he could do a lot of work on a first 2026 F1 car with his new team, which is not to Red Bull’s advantage.”

But if he thinks that “all dominant periods” eventually come to an end in F1, Red Bull can continue to win at least in the short and medium term.

“The Red Bull era will end by 2026 at the latest, but for now, they are in good shape.”

“In the short term, it won’t make a big difference because the concept is already in place.”

Indeed, Newey admitted last weekend in Miami—where he was excluded from technical meetings and access to Red Bull data—that he had already finished working on the main weaknesses of the 2024 car so that the 2025 car would be even better.

Steiner adds that Red Bull would not notice Newey’s absence too much either in 2024 or in 2025—the last year of the current regulatory era.

“I have not given up hope that there will still be quite a few tight battles for victories this year. But the engineers at Red Bull are already drawing the best performance from this very good car. They do not need Adrian for that.”

“He is there to plan for the future, not to oversee what happens on the track. So it will have an impact on 2026.”