Ferrari have been linked with a move for Adrian Newey after his departure from Red Bull was confirmed in May.
Former F1 star Juan Pablo Montoya believes that the promise of a Ferrari supercar project could be the key to luring Adrian Newey to Maranello. The Italian constructor is reportedly in talks with the Red Bull engineer as they look to add him to Fred Vasseur’s roster for the 2025 season.
Newey’s departure from Red Bull was confirmed ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, bringing an end to a 19-year stay at Milton Keynes amid the ongoing turmoil amongst the team’s leadership personnel.
After the announcement, Newey suggested that he was ‘tired’ and that he needed a break from the F1 spotlight. However, he later said: “I feel a little bit tired at the moment, but at some point I’ll probably go again,” before adding that he was “seriously considering changing teams, going somewhere else and doing another four or five years or whatever”.
Speaking to RacingNews365 about Ferrari’s interest in Newey, Montoya said: “I think the only reason he would go to Ferrari is if he could get to build road cars. If Ferrari said, ‘The next five supercars you’re in charge of, and you’ve got to build the F1 car’, I think he would jump on that opportunity in a heartbeat because he likes pushing beyond what’s possible.”
Newey previously worked on the Aston Martin Valkyrie project, which was undertaken in association with Red Bull, but Montoya believes that designing a Ferrari would mean more. “He’s done that Red Bull car, which is supposed to be insane,” he explained. “But it’s a Red Bull car, not a Ferrari. It’s about the badge, whether you like it or not.”
Such an arrangement would allow Newey to work on a road-legal Ferrari car alongside his duties with the Scuderia, giving him the best of both worlds in what could be his final F1 gig.
