"I was pretty disillusioned with the whole thing" - Red Bull almost lost its chief technical officer to Ferrari

Red Bull Chief Technology Officer Adrian Newey was reportedly approached by Ferrari to join the team. The Briton played a significant role in Red Bull's success in their championship-winning seasons and was also part of McLaren and Williams' success back in the 90s. He was on the brink of leaving the sport in 2014 when Red Bull missed out on their fifth consecutive championship and recently revealed his state of mind at the time.

Newey told The Race that he didn't want to switch teams, although Red Bull's "uncompetitive" power unit, paired with Ferrari's tempting package, made it a complex decision to make. He said:

“Back then I was pretty disillusioned with the whole thing to be honest in as much as… obviously I nearly joined Ferrari but didn’t, which was kind of [part of it]… but more than anything, although I felt happy at Red Bull and didn’t really want to move teams, the only thing that had pushed me towards even thinking about moving teams was that we were stuck with an uncompetitive engine.”

The 63-year-old went on to add, saying:

“We had a supplier that seemed more interested in the marketing angle that came from being in F1 than actually being competitive. If you have an engine partner who comes up with a power unit that’s below the competitors but shows a real desire and a will to fix it and go forward, then you accept it. But one that won’t recognise it’s behind and doesn’t seem to be interested in doing anything about it is altogether more difficult. So it caused me to lose motivation. I still enjoyed F1 but not like that.”

Newey has spent over sixteen years at the Milton Keynes-based team and is considered to be one of the most successful engineers in F1.

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Red Bull designer claims he was initially "depressed" by the new regulations

Adrian Newey revealed that he did not expect to enjoy the new regulations brought about ahead of the 2022 F1 season as much as he ended up once the team embraced the changes.

Describing the level of freedom the engineers and designers truly had going into this new era of F1, he said:

“I do enjoy reg changes but when I first saw these regs I was quite depressed by them. At first sight, they appear to be very prescriptive. But as you dig into it more then – particularly in the area of the sidepod and floor – there’s actually a reasonable degree of freedom. More than you first think.”

The aerodynamic whiz went on to say:

“The chassis is near enough designed for you by the regulations, the front wing quite prescriptive. Front and rear suspension, although there is some prescription on the angles, in terms of layout there’s still some freedom. As we got into it and realised that, then I’m not surprised there’s been a reasonable diversity of shapes. I certainly didn’t see the Mercedes sidepod solution coming. The other cars, the broad differences in sidepod shape have not completely surprised me.”

All teams showed up for the Barcelona testing session with an entirely different interpretation of the new regulations earlier this year, causing a significant shake-up in constructors' performances across the grid.