"I would say it’s a little bit of wishful thinking": Guenther Steiner decries Williams approaching Adrian Newey for a potential switch

Guenther Steiner believes it is highly unlikely that Adrian Newey would join the Williams F1 team despite esteem-wooing him openly. Speaking on the Red Flag podcast, the former Haas team principal felt that the Red Bull aerodynamic wizard has been merely talking to people, and several teams are being linked to him.

Adrian Newey has been linked to teams from Ferrari to Williams and most recently with Alpine. With Flavio Briatore rumored to return to his former team, there has been speculation that he is trying to rope the British car designer into the Enstone camp.

Commenting on the possibility of a potential move by Adrian Newey to Williams, Steiner felt that it was wishful thinking at best. The Haas team principal felt that the British veteran has been reported talking to various teams but it seems to be no more than ‘name-dropping’.

He believes that the former Red Bull chief designer will talk to teams as he wishes to but there is no certainty where he will go. The German felt even the narrative of the Briton moving to Ferrari seems to have fizzled out of late.

Speaking on the possibility of the aerodynamicist moving to Ferrari, Steiner said:

“A few weeks ago, Adrian Newey was going there. I don’t hear anything about that one anymore.”

On the possibility of Adrian Newey moving to Williams, he said:

“I don’t think they’re rumours. James said them openly. It’s not a rumour. If the team principal says that he is speaking with Adrian, obviously the press picks it up. That is what the press are there for. If somebody says [something], you need to [report it]. Obviously not knowing if it is serious or not, I would say it’s a little bit of wishful thinking.”

“Obviously he’s going to speak to people – that is what you [should] be doing, you should be speaking – but before you say [it] you need to be a little more certain that they will happen. If Toto [Wolff] or Fred [Vasseur] said who they speak to all day long, we would be like: ‘Wow, next year Ferrari will need a new building to fit in all the people they spoke with. It’s a little bit of namedropping as well: ‘We are getting Adrian Newey here.”

---

Guenther Steiner doubts the possibility of Adrian Newey moving to Williams F1 team

Guenther Steiner doubts the possibility of Adrain Newey joining the Williams F1 team any time soon. He reckoned that was not one of the options he would bet on. The former Haas team principal felt maybe the Grove-based team and James Vowles could surprise everyone by signing the British aerodynamicist and Carlos Sainz but it is a difficult scenario to predict.

Speaking about the possibility of Adrian Newey going to Williams, Steiner said:

“Does Adrian really want to go to Williams? I don’t know. Maybe he wants to, but Adrian has got a lot of opportunities out there. He can pick where he can go. I don’t know why he would pick Williams, but maybe he knows. Maybe they offer him something somebody else cannot offer him, maybe he gets half of the team [to own]. It’s difficult to predict that one and if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t be putting my money on that.”

“You always speak with people. As a team principal, you speak with a lot of people but with some it’s just an exchange like: ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’ It doesn’t mean that Carlos Sainz went to them begging for a cockpit. It’s right for James to ask Carlos: ‘Are you interested in coming to Williams? Let’s have a talk about it.’Fred and Toto speak with everybody. They talk with sponsors, they talk with these great companies. But you don’t want to make that public because, if it doesn’t happen, you look pretty stupid. Maybe we will be surprised and Carlos and Adrian sign in the next few weeks. I’d be fine with that.”

While the Maranello rumors have died down for now, Adrian Newey is likely to join Ferrari, as they have the driver he wanted to design a car for. Lewis Hamilton and the British engineer have expressed their desire to work with each other and at the moment that seems the most likely fit.

There has been speculation that he could move to Mercedes along with Max Verstappen. The most recent has been the link up to Alpine, which is highly unlikely given the structural shakeup there. At the moment, his manager Eddie Jordan has made it clear that there will be talks with teams but also clarified that Ferrari is not a done deal yet.