“No one will be like Adrian” - Max Verstappen comments on Adrian Newey's significance at Red Bull amidst Ferrari rumors

Max Verstappen has admitted that Red Bull will struggle to replace Adrian Newey amid rumors of the star designer potentially moving to Ferrari. Newey has been part of the Red Bull project since 2007, playing a key role alongside Christian Horner and Helmut Marko.

The team's first taste of success came in 2009 when it was an outside contender for the title against Brawn GP. The 2010 season saw Adrian Newey enjoy a team win for the first time with Sebastian Vettel and this was followed by a four-year dominant run.

After a seven-year barren run from 2014 to 2020, Max Verstappen catapulted the team to another title in 2021. The Dutch driver beat Lewis Hamilton to become world champion and helped Red Bull win its first title in seven years.

Adrian Newey's brilliance has helped the team and Verstappen to dominate the sport ever since. With Hamilton leaving Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025, there have been suggestions that this could lead to the Italian marque building a super team. Newey's name has also popped up in potential moves Ferrari could make.

Verstappen was questioned by motorsport-magazin on whether someone like Newey would be replaceable. He replied:

“No one will be like Adrian. That’s the great thing about it: everyone is different and everyone achieves success in a different way. Therefore, no, you cannot replace Adrian because there is only one Adrian."

He added:

“But it’s wonderful to see new talent coming in that he’s been working with for a long time. And it’s wonderful to see how this talent goes its own way and how we achieve what we do.”

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Christian Horner offers non-committal response on Adrian Newey's future with Red Bull

Apart from Max Verstappen, Red Bull boss Christian Horner was also questioned on the status of Adrian Newey's contract. Horner declined to comment on those details, while suggesting that many others haved played key roles in the team's success. He said (as quoted by Planet F1):

“Look I’m not going to discuss the ins and outs of individual contracts. We have a great team, we have great strength in depth. Adrian has been here a long time, as I have, but there are also many others that play a key, key role so yeah, not going talk about contractual details of employees of the team.”

Newey has been part of Red Bull for more than 15 years now and has achieved plenty of success. It will be interesting to see if he now decides to pursue a different challenge at a completely different team.