Red Bull no longer relies on Adrian Newey on a 'day-to-day basis', claims Christian Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has stated that the team does not rely as much as they used to on technical director Adrian Newey when it comes to day-to-day operations.

Newey, who has designed some of the most dominant cars in F1 history, has been working with the Austrian team for over 15 years. He was the catalyst behind Red Bull's dominance in the early 2010s and also designed the RB18, which won 17 races last season.

Horner revealed that Newey remains a key figure in the Red Bull family but revealed that the engineer has now split his duties with the team and independent projects with F1 and Aston Martin.

Speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, he said:

"Adrian over the last few years has stepped back from day-to-day responsibilities in Formula 1. He splits his time between advanced technologies in F1 but of course, he has an encyclopedia of knowledge and what we have seen over the last couple of years which has been fantastic, you know, the technical team has really stepped up."

"That's enabled Adrian to go and work on the Valkyrie project and the RB17, which is a big project that we announced halfway through last year. So, Adrian is of course involved to be drawn on but not on a day-to-day basis."

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"This year it’s going to be a lot tougher and a lot tighter" - Red Bull team principal Christian Horner

Christian Horner has stated that he predicts a much tougher season for the Austrian team in contrast to their dominant 2022 outing.

As per the Mirror, the Red Bull team principal said:

“Last year was an extraordinary year – nobody could have predicted 17 race wins out of 22, two out of three Sprint victories. It was the most successful year in our history. This year it’s going to be a lot tougher and a lot tighter. The regulations are relatively stable and I think the group will converge."

"We’ve got some very capable rivals, so I fully expect it to be a lot more competitive and all we can do is focus on getting the best out of our own package. Last year was a phenomenal year and it will be difficult to repeat those statistics."

Many fans expect a resurgent Mercedes AMG F1 team to join the battle against Ferrari and Red Bull from the start of the 2023 season. The German team made some late-season gains, which resulted in them regularly challenging for podiums.