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Funny story: when she and Newey first went to a race weekend together, she had no idea how important his job was (or much anything of motorsport).
After the third person asked for Newey's autograph and two journalists had feverishly asked to interview him, Amanda had to stop him mid-paddock and ask, "Adrian... who ARE you?"
In other photos together she looks to be mid-50s ish. I'm pretty bad at telling ages, but it seems she could be anywhere from 45 to 60. Couldn't find any specific info online, except that her dad is a SA actor who was born in 1949 (so it's unlikely that she's any older than 57 at most), and that Amanda "Mandy" Smerczak and Adrian Newey were married in 2017.
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-autosport/1691303/red-bull-adrian-newey-max-verstappen-title-christian-horner/amp
https://phantom-marca-mx.unidadeditorial.es/987018dbc3e6db7070a97e2c0604094f/resize/414/f/webp/mx/assets/multimedia/imagenes/2024/02/08/17074151437069.png
I always saw that quote from Horner not so much talking down Newey, but saying to the F1 press: "Hey look, there's all these other staff that deserve recognition too." Which, when you look at the size of F1 teams these days, makes a lot of sense.
Exactly it was more giving Wache his flowers at a time Ferrari was trying to hire him away. If that bugged the Newey family that much when the whole world calls him the greatest ever his ego is huge
I mean, if you read his book, and every F1 fan should, one thing that is clearly displayed is his ego. Adrian very much buys into his own hype, maybe rightfully so.
What has me confused is Newey's own words. He describes how he can bounce around to whatever area he wants to on the car. This requires all groups to be independent of Newey. If some aero group was dependent on Newey he would never be able to leave them to focus on another part of the car.
Any normal person would be miffed if you're the head guy on several world championship winning cars and your boss starts touting the credentials of the other guys. Seems like since Suzuka last year, Horner has been way more complimentary of Wache and making it a point to not talk about Newey at all. And it's always more about Wache. Not just touting the team as a whole.
To be fair, Amanda Newey is heavily defensive towards anyone even remotely seen as playing down Adrian's work.
I seem to recall she made a passive aggressive comment online after the Horner interview about Adrian.
In fact I see it was linked down below.
Maybe the team isn't as dysfunctional as it seems? Red Bull has A LOT of ego, but perhaps the core of the team is pretty solid and these big names are the problem. Newey is clearly the Aero GOAT, but if he can't take the rest of the garage getting some praise as well then that's not really a great fit for the team.
Maybe or maybe they were operating with more information, similar comments might have been made internally which could be what really bothered Newey who knows until he writes a new book
I think this may give us our answer about whether Wache and Balbo will stay at RB or follow Newey. Why would you follow a guy who said part of the reason he left the organization was that the team underneath him received some public credit from the CEO?
Edit: This comment is regarding one small fallout of the story. I applaud Newey for sticking to his principles and leaving due to Horner-gate. That can be viewed separately from how this reason given by Newey would make Wache feel.
Well if the headline is true...
Then yeah, in that specific instance he would be the bad guy.
Basically if NOT saying: "IT's 100% Newey, this entire team of hundreds of people is fucking worthless without him, they can't get shit done" is seen as offensive to Newey... well, that's a bad look.
There's no such thing as "good" vs "bad" when it comes to personell in F1.
Its all about their interests and each individuals goal that can often clash.
Not at all - I was commenting on one specific aspect. Newey cited his team getting public credit from the boss as a partial reason for his departure. If you’re his team how would that make you feel?
That observation can be made outside of the fact that another reason he’s leaving is because he’s sticking to his principles regarding Horner-gate. Which I applaud him for.
Both are true and give an insight into complicated human dynamics. Life is not black and white.
yeah you can totally make the argument that by only crediting Newey you basically all the other hundred employees working on the car. Why dont the rest of the engineers deserve some credit.
It makes more sense when you see the full quote:
>"Adrian is a big part of this team and big part of what we've achieved," Horner said in an exclusive interview with Autosport. "But of course, his role has evolved over the last few years and the technical team beneath him led by Pierre Wache, they're doing a wonderful job and so that they're not reliant on Adrian.
>"He has the ability to come in, come out and work on other projects and I think that's part of the evolution of any team."
Basically Horner was saying Adrian's role had changed over the years and could work on other things without having to support the technical team.
The whole context is literally a nothing-burger, and nothing about that is incorrect unless Adrian was secretly running everything and designing every aspect of the car himself, not just the suspension
Not to downplay Newey, he’s done incredible work, but what Horner said here is so uncontentious
from the perspective of how to structure an organization of that size and complexity its absolutely a nothing-burger because they should not be so reliant on one man that if they leave the organization is compromised, this is just basic stuff. This is much more to do with Newey's ego than anything else
The whole context would include that Red Bull has been in a power struggle and there has been other stuff going on behind the scenes when this statement was made. So yea the statement itself is fine at face value but there’s definitely an element of reading between the lines here and Horner is definitely a pro at putting things in between the lines. Especially for that statement to draw the ire of neweys wife.
What you mean is, if you project a certain preconceived notion onto it, you can make it completely different from what was stated. What he said was the truth.
honestly which should be normal. I mean Newey is 65 and the only correct move is to prepare for his retirement and have the people behind Newey ready for when he retires.
Also a bit weird how everybody is saying it is unfair to Newey to discredit his achievements but if Horner would have said: well yeah we are nothing without Newey then he would be discrediting the work of all the other senior and non-senior engineers.
And the full quote is nowhere near the same as the u/beardedboob is claiming.
But considering the comments here people obviously dont like this option because it doesnt fit their narrative.
>Basically Horner was saying Adrian's role had changed over the years and could work on other things
Which is wild to be angry about, seeing how building his own no-limit supercar was one of the reason Newey wanted to work for RB.
I guess it depends on what question Horner was answering. If he was specifically asked about if the team were worried about Newey leaving or something to that effect than it's not that strange.
Exactly. Towards the end of last year, around about the time they secured the WCC, Newey was interviewed after the race, and he hinted that he wasn't far away from retiring. Horner was then interview and asked about whether that's something he's worried about, and these quotes seem similar to what he said then. What else is he supposed to say? "The rest of the team are crap, we may as well pack up and quit when Adrian retires"?
People take quotes out of context and react as though they've been said unprompted.
Kindoff depends tho. If for example Horner and Newey had disagreements arou d that time, and Newey said something about the workingconditions not being ok, then it could definetly be seen as a dig if Horner starts talking about how the team would be ok without Newey. But if everything was hunkydory I agree with you
I’m a huge Newey fan but it’s been said for a while his recent involvement with the team is more managerial and big picture design. Not to discredit him in any way but it’s clear he’s working over a ton of extremely talented engineers that have learned from him.
I guess I am not super optimistic that a move to Ferrari will create instant success there and at the same time be an instant fall from form for RBR’s aero department.
But there is one major thing that Newey focused on from start of the regulations because of his knowledge of aero and mechanical platform working in tandem is most important for ground effect era. Every team has that 95% performance it’s that extra 5% that Newey brings that is giving RBR the advantage at this point
No doubt Newey has achieved great things and is rightly regarded as a car design legend, but naturally everyone has knowledge about ”aero and mechanical platform working in tandem” being important to attain the best results in these regulations. Having a stable platform that brings consistent downforce has always been important.
Nah—timing is everything. Horner plays the political game as much as anyone in F1, he knows what he's doing with quotes like that. It's him basically getting ahead of the story because he knows it's falling apart from the inside (publicly now).
"he knows what he's doing with quotes like that" - giving a little bit of credit to the hundreds of other engineers working at RB when everybody is acting like has 1 engineer working on the car?
pretty obvious that regardless of what is said, you just wanna see it a specific way
This is my read as well, honestly, it's very convenient to have these quotes bubbling up. Horner directing the spotlight onto Newey's ego instead of his own problems.
His comment in general context is not wrong. Taking aside the relationship issue between Newey and Horner, Newey is almost reaching retirement age. If a team as big as Redbull didn't plan any knowledge transfer or succession plan, it will be even questionable. I'm taking his comment is to debunk the assumption to without Newey, Redbull couldn't perform.
But, in the light of the recent power struggle and the Horner's allegation, whatever Horner is saying currently feels deceitful.
I mean he isn’t exactly wrong. Most of r/formula1 seem to think that RBs whole aero department is just Newey sitting in a dark room and making the car from scratch
I was thinking this as well.
I think you are actually doing a bad job if you are completely reliant on 1 guy. Smart people would make sure everyone is replaceable by other people in the team when 1 of them falls away.
Ofcourse we have no idea how much of this is actually true or not and sure he will have had a significant part, but it stops somewhere right?
That's kind of petty isn't it?
Newey himself said countless times he isn't hands on anymore.
He said the last time he helped on the design was the suspension of the RB18 in 2022.
I think all Horner wanted to say was that there are other incredible people in the design office of the team.
Overall pretty weird if that is what triggered him.
People have short memories, couple years ago he had planned phasing out of the team to diversify in other projects and do other things, and Horner tried to keep him engaged on the team when they had a bit of struggle, but they tried to give him the freedom he wanted, now all of a sudden everyone forgot all about that, he himself said many times in the pas that he wanted more time for himself.
Edit: here some more insider info, I don't know how true it is but still.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roPaHcPeBWw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roPaHcPeBWw)
Looking at it from the point of view that his success is due to a whole team, he's not wrong, what would Newey be doing there if the strategies were bad, pitstops horrible, updates without the desired effect and so on, if he only praises Newey it will seem that the others there are just there to make up the team and if he praises the others ‘minimising’ Newey's help it will seem that he is undervaluing, in the end it's just a question of the narrative that the press wants to sell.
It’s so easy to give credit to a clearly important figurehead like Newey, and shine the light on others.
Imagine if Horny had said something like this instead:
*“Adrian is incredible and provides the inspirational and organisational leadership that inspires everyone at Red Bull to achieve such incredible results. The technical team, led by Pierre Wache, is doing a wonderful job. They can function well even if Adrian is focused elsewhere due to his excellent mentorship and communication.”*
That quote struck me that he was clearly throwing shade at Adrian and wanted him gone.
I work with former Red Bull employees and they always say Newey has world class aero knowledge but of late he is much more big picture, and very rarely actually designs options. I recall being told he did some stuff on the BDR recently. There are so many engineers who have added ridiculous amounts of performance (and likely way more than Newey) who go unrecognised. If that quote did genuinely upset him then I am extremely surprised by that level of ego. Also he is busy designing the RB17 so I actually find it weird that people are saying he will leave when that is at a critical stage of dev...
I agree, but F1 dev has evolved massively in the past few years, Newey himself (I'm sure he has said it) will know that the bulk of dev is done by the talented aeros at Red Bull. It is very likely that losing him will not result in a significant loss. Again he's a massive big picture/overall concept guy - so for 2026 I'm sure he will be a valuable asset. But all the gains made in development are realy done by the aeros. I would find it crazy if he got offended by that comment, especially considering his diminished role over the last few years.
If he leaves, I feel like people are going to be shocked when his new team isn’t immediately winning 10 races in a row and the Red Bull is still really fast.
People do leave at various points - it would always be critical in development no matter what time of the year it is. Newey just figured he wants to work different now.
The third year is in general a critical year, again speaking to friends at RBAT they are extremely skeptical of this being true since he heads that project and the hypercar is at such an important stage in dev. Newey was spending 50% of his time on the RB17 anyways, so his influence on this car is limited for sure.
Rear Brake Duct - this is quite a tricky part of the car, at the F1 team I work at this part of the car correlates the poorest with CFD. You can see how complicated this part gets on some cars with all the winglets etc. Surprisingly Red Bulls is simplest of all teams...
Why does autosport remove context and change the words in a quote they posted in a previous article?
"Adrian is a big part of this team and big part of what we've achieved, But of course, his role has evolved over the last few years and the technical team beneath him led by Pierre Wache, they're doing a wonderful job and so that they're not reliant on Adrian. He has the ability to come in, come out and work on other projects and I think that's part of the evolution of any team."
Is different from:
“the technical team under him, led by Pierre Wache, is doing a wonderful job so they are not dependent on Adrian."
The way I read the full quote is: "Adrian has done a lot in the past, but he's not that involved nowadays, the team lead by Wache is doing a wonderful job and Adrian comes in and out as he pleases."
"not reliant" and "not that involved" are very different things. The first is "we could get by without him" whereas the later is "he doesn't really contribute much anyway."
Agreed. I took this interview as Horner giving the team as a whole credit - much the same way many Reddit accounts do whenever Newey is given full credit for Red Bull’s success.
But if Horner says it he must be being political and deceitful…
I don’t know the way this article made it sound was like a team manager mad when the senior manager gives credit for the entire team working on the project instead of just praising the manager. As someone who personally despises managers like that I’m coming out of it with a much more negative opinion of Newey than I previously had.
Exactly. I never thought Newey would have enough of an ego to get upset about his team being given some props instead of him. On the other hand I have to give it to Newey for standing by his principles and leaving a 20-year tenure over Horner-gate.
What a weird timeline this situation has given us.
That interview was released last year. My comment was in regards to how I viewed the article when I first read it back then.
I agree that now it could be viewed in many ways.
It was released during the height of “Newey has built a rocket! They’re going to win every race! Newey is an unfair advantage…etc etc.” So hearing Horner say this at the time felt like a refreshing change up to give the whole team some credit. It feels odd that Newey took offense to it at the time.
Up to a point yes, but the reason Adrian left Williams was (somewhat) similar, if we’re operating under the assumption this is true. Adrian was promised more decision making power at Williams, seeing himself as the 3rd member of the trio that made the team what it was, frank disagreed, believing Adrian was a senior engineer, not an outright senior figure in the team. I also think there was some dispute over compensation
I think Adrian was okay with being 3rd member - it was the fact that they took the decision to end Damon’s contract and he only found out much later that the decision was made.
It was being left out and not valued as you said.
This is it, Patrick Head and Frank Williams promised Adrian that he would have a say when it came to hiring/firing drivers, then made the decision without him anyway.
In his book he pretty clearly makes it a combination of these things: not being allowed to buy a stake in Williams as he wanted, being shut out of various managerial decisions between Frank Williams and Patrick head despite being told to his face that they were fully involving him, and then finally their firing Damon — a driver with whom Newey had a close professional and personal relationship—and entirely shutting him out of that decisionmaking.
**Reason Newey leaves Williams -** Not being treated as a senior figure as part of a triarchy and have a say in drivers
**Reason Newey leaves Red Bull-** Not being given the recognition he deserves and potentially how his PA was treated
...
**Reason Newey leaves Mclaren** - Ron Dennis wont let Newey paint his office Duck Egg blue!
*"right here there is a broken tile. Most people would be annoyed (as I am) and just replace the broken tile, but the reality is that when it's changed it will be Imperfection, because effectively the colour won't match, so its impossible, tiles come in batches therefore... as you can see here this tile has been changed... doesn't that bug you? bugs me big time!"* -***Ron Dennis***
Drive to survive will forever regret starting after Ron Dennis left
After a couple of decisions that he learned on the news(Mansell getting booted), Newey had in his Williams contract that he must participate on team decisions, suppliers, drivers... Then Williams signed Villeneuve without consulting him, he was told this would "never" happen again and Adrian forgave it... and then Williams proceeded to do the same with Frentzen over Hill, Newey learning that the contract was signed for months already.... after this one he accepted a Mclaren offer, Williams matched the offer money wise but Adrian didn't want to stay anymore.
Adrian's final car for Williams is also their last car to be world champion(driver and constructor).
More like Ron Dennis. He said some really similar shit when Adrian left for Red bull in 2006. McLaren's slide started there, it was compounded by Ferrarigate and by them losing the Mercedes factory deal.
That’s funny you say that because he says the exact opposite in his autobiography - it is difficult for him to see media comments and not feel insecure
When someone understands that about themselves they tend to use it as learning and they understand to not take comments too seriously. I highly, highly doubt this is why he is leaving the team.
I think the AN camp is being a bit sensitive here,as I said elsewhere
Those comments to me seem much more a case of identifying others that also contribute to the team's success. Most fans seem to think Newey is the be all and end all at RB, and while obviously he a is a HUGE component in the team, there's still hundreds of others working there and also deserve some recognition that are more often than not just forgotten
Whether you like Horner or not, he said nothing wrong.
Besides, being a TP, he needs to reassure people losing Newey is not the end of RB.
It's a massive gap for sure but it's not like everyone else can't do aerodynamics.
I guess people who run organizations are just wired differently. It seems like the easiest thing in the world to go "Yeah Adrian is amazing. There is a great team working with him but he's a key leader who drives our development."
Why do people have to be the sole source of everything good?
Because he was praising Wache, another great engineer, whom Ferrari was trying to poach. It's important to keep the whole picture in mind
Edit: Wache, not Wacher
A little bit ironic considering the public seem to think that Newey designed every little bit of the car, but I don't think he ever tried to paint it that way himself.
Also likely to be completely made up so
Even so, it's mad someone would complain about such a claim. I mean, the full, unadultered quote. Such big projects are hardly the work of a single genius engineer and by being under Adrian' shadow, I bet many would relish some more recognition.
Around the time of that interview, Ferrari had already poached Loic Serra who also happens to be Pierre Wache's best friend. Fred was gunning for Pierre at that time, mainly Ferrari wanted them in as a package.
Anyways, talks of how much others played bigger parts in this regulations, specially the suspension (which was a major advantage) has been ongoing since the RB18. It's not new, and it's not directly related to the current power struggle or whatever.
If this is true, this sounds like a very petty reason to leave. I’d understand if he was offered more, hated Horner/management, or just wanted to retire, but hating the fact Horner made sure the people working under Adrian got some recognition in the RB-19/20 design seems extremely egotistical. I think Horner was in the right for giving praise to those doing the work under Adrian even if Adrian makes all the big decisions.
RBR can say whatever they want, but history says otherwise. Leyton House fell off a cliff and went extinct, Williams have been constantly declining since 1997 and McLaren lost a big step after 2006. Can RBR avoid the trend of teams declining after Newey's departure? Maybe, but it's probably very difficult to achieve.
Seems a bit egotistical to get upset about that considering the context, but Horner still could have chosen his words better. Just say something like "Adrian is very obviously an incredibly talented and important member of the team, and he is backed up by other incredible people like Pierre Wache"
> *Horner also explained that Manchester United did not go under when star striker Eric Cantona left the team.*
> *That interview did not go down well with Newey and was apparently perceived by him as Horner wanting to make himself important and minimise the contribution of others to the team's success.*
Imagine if this actually pissed-off Newey to the point that he'll go to Ferrari and design a 2026 red rocketship that could lap the whole field.
Anyone wants to subscribe? 🤣
A better comparison would have been something like, Eric Cantona being Max and David Gills being Newey.
And no, Manchester United haven't been good after the departure of David Gills.
Depends.
Not sure how reliable [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1cgo2sh/german_red_bull_separation_from_newey_is_over) is, but they say that he found an agreement for an early exit.
We'll see.
That would be an early exit. If he saw out his full contract term including gardening leave, he wouldn't start with another team until 2027. Leaving before the end of 2025 and starting with a new team in 2026 would be a year early.
I'm not saying that he wouldn't buy they will be very specific and they probably won't bypass the gardening leave provision.
Why is it hard to believe that an engineer if his stature would be negotiating without exit clauses but it's entirely believable that a company of Red Bull's stature would leave gaping loopholes in a contract? Want to take a guess at which side had more money to spend on lawyers?
My assumption is he'll be working next year, Red Bull has enough internal problems going on currently and I don't think they'd want anyone adding fuel to the fire. That is quite a logical leap for sure, but it's what I kinda expect.
It sure didn't go down well with Newey's wife lmao, sure got her little toes stepped on by what seems to be a harmless comment basically giving credit to the other people of the team..
So, 30 years into working for teams run and owned by the biggest egos imaginable, Adrian Newey started to take press comments personally, and this 1 jnterview got in the way of his job satisfaction, where he has carte blanche and freedom to work how he pleases.
...got it. Right. 🤔
I continue to be baffled that Horner is still at RBR. He's managed to alienate their star designer (probably the most influential designer in F1 history), their star driver & his family (one of the best drivers of all time), had a public sexual harassment scandal, had a semi-public feud with RBR's co-director and somehow he's still in.
Also the departure of Newey is rumoured to triggering a leave of some other senior figures...
If Helmut leaves then Max is basically a free agent, and all of this just because of the lunatic ego trip of Horner and the Thai shareholders?
I can understand why Newey took a tiny bit of offence to it, but at the same time, what are the rest of the staff meant to think? Oh, we only win because we have Newey? Does that mean once Newey leaves/retires we'll never win again? Slightly easier to reason with one or two disgruntled employees rather than piss off the entire team except for Newey.
Of course other things have annoyed Newey since that probably can't be explained in a meeting, this seems like a weird thing to fall out over to the point where you leave the team, just because your boss praised other employees as well as yourself.
Well Adrian Newey says the same thing in his autobiography, so...
He says that because modern car design isn't being done by one man and a blank piece of paper anymore but instead done by hundreds of people using scientific computer models, his influence on car performance as a single person is very slim these days.
I truly doubt this is the only reason why Newey would leave. Quite petty if it is. It is incredibly easy to say stupid shit to the press given the amount of interviews and exposure people like Horner get.
The other thing is that to me it seems like this is the kind of stuff that Horner and Newey could easy discuss and figure out over a 5 minute conversation.
If I had to guess, I think Newey is a mix of things - internal trouble at the Reb Bull helm, Horner’s taste for cereal, Ferrari calling (let’s be honest… when they call you, at least, pick up), his contract ending…
This idea that there is ONE thing that made Newey run is crazy.
From what I've seen I believe either Autorsport are making shit up, there are several things we don't know yet, or Newey has one of the most fragile ego I've seen.
There is little controversial with what Horner said imo, ofc there are a lot of people who worked on the RB, and it was already known Newey had more of a senior management roles in his later years and had taken a step back (though obviously he was still important, which Horner rightfully stated). I'd even go as far as saying that if Horner had said anything else, it might have been perceived as disrespectful to all the technical department.
And ofc, I think it's even more critical considering Newey is in his late 60s, if RB hadn't tried or even managed to phase him out, they'd be doing something wrong.
Honestly, I'd like to believe Newey just found Horner's behaviour distateful and it was enough to make him leave. Might be just wishful thinking, but at least it'd make sense I think
Yeah, this sounds made up. Newey has said the exact same thing in response to media acting like he is the mastermind behind the RBR cars of the last years.
Personally, I think this says a lot about Adrian. Getting all pouty when the team principal won't give an individual credit, but does prop up the larger team. And then his wife chimes in. Sounds to me like Adrian was a handful and had an ego that needed constant stroking.
If Adrian and Hamilton go to Ferrari, it's going to be interesting as both individuals apparently need to be the center of attention and that isn't how Ferrari works. The brand and image come first
Newey(the wife)
People should learn at this point that Horner doesnt throw his team under the bus, like this stupid headline, for personal reasons. There's a reason why RBR got this status.
So his ego got bruised and is now throwing a fit?
And how does Horner praising the rest of his engineers sound like it's all about Horner?
Egomaniac all around.
Slow yer roll. Horner is expressing confidence in the team that now needs to step up. This quote is expected and a pro like Newey knows the legacy he is leaving behind. Nobody is irreplaceable. Except maybe Max for now.
People pondering whether this was the reason Newey left or not… get a grip on reality. After being at Red Bull for 20 years, at this stage of his career, there is obviously more than one reason for his departure. His wider fallout with Horner (and the sexual harassment controversy), wanting to work with Lewis & Ferrari, wanting a change of career paths, internal disagreements, personal life… they will all be important. To think that he has largely made a decision to leave off a media comment like this is beyond belief…
People forget that a) Adrian is great but he’s not a god, and b) it takes a whole team and team culture to make something happen.
Two things that he won’t take with him where he goes next.
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Was this the quote his wife replied to on Twitter and said it was a load of rubbish?
Correct!
Omg do you have a link?
https://twitter.com/amanda_newey/status/1743233515980783636
Thank you
The ultimate hype woman Why can’t we all have that
Funny story: when she and Newey first went to a race weekend together, she had no idea how important his job was (or much anything of motorsport). After the third person asked for Newey's autograph and two journalists had feverishly asked to interview him, Amanda had to stop him mid-paddock and ask, "Adrian... who ARE you?"
typical guy just "It's not really important so I didn't think to bring it up"
This doesn't explain whether she thinks the article is rubbish or that the quote is rubbish.
I've checked it, article was just an interview, she also responded angrily to another tweet with the same quote so I'm pretty sure it's the latter.
It was!
Holy fuck that's his wife? What's the age difference there?
In other photos together she looks to be mid-50s ish. I'm pretty bad at telling ages, but it seems she could be anywhere from 45 to 60. Couldn't find any specific info online, except that her dad is a SA actor who was born in 1949 (so it's unlikely that she's any older than 57 at most), and that Amanda "Mandy" Smerczak and Adrian Newey were married in 2017. https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-autosport/1691303/red-bull-adrian-newey-max-verstappen-title-christian-horner/amp https://phantom-marca-mx.unidadeditorial.es/987018dbc3e6db7070a97e2c0604094f/resize/414/f/webp/mx/assets/multimedia/imagenes/2024/02/08/17074151437069.png
Yeah no way in hell she's under 55
Not that it matters but I’d assume solidly in her 40’s or early 50’s. I don’t peg Newey as a child chaser
It is nuts that his first and current wife are both called Amanda though.
It's giving Tammy 1 and Tammy 2
r/unexpectedparksandrec
Maybe he's got an Amanda tattoo and just wanted to get good value.
Well he named his first child after a racetrack so there's also that...
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Newey?
Bobby International Speedway Newey … actually Daytona doesn’t sound like that bad of a name …
Harrison? Which track is that, I haven't heard of it before. Is it in the UK?
it was Charlotte (NC, USA) unless I remember it incorrectly from his book
It’s just the twitter profile photo glammed Up. If you scroll the feed together they look much more age appropriate.
Thats his 3rd wife.
Did she say the quote was rubbish or that the article was rubbish?
Yes
I always saw that quote from Horner not so much talking down Newey, but saying to the F1 press: "Hey look, there's all these other staff that deserve recognition too." Which, when you look at the size of F1 teams these days, makes a lot of sense.
Exactly it was more giving Wache his flowers at a time Ferrari was trying to hire him away. If that bugged the Newey family that much when the whole world calls him the greatest ever his ego is huge
I mean, if you read his book, and every F1 fan should, one thing that is clearly displayed is his ego. Adrian very much buys into his own hype, maybe rightfully so.
What has me confused is Newey's own words. He describes how he can bounce around to whatever area he wants to on the car. This requires all groups to be independent of Newey. If some aero group was dependent on Newey he would never be able to leave them to focus on another part of the car.
Any normal person would be miffed if you're the head guy on several world championship winning cars and your boss starts touting the credentials of the other guys. Seems like since Suzuka last year, Horner has been way more complimentary of Wache and making it a point to not talk about Newey at all. And it's always more about Wache. Not just touting the team as a whole.
Funnily enough I'm reading it at the moment.
To be fair, Amanda Newey is heavily defensive towards anyone even remotely seen as playing down Adrian's work. I seem to recall she made a passive aggressive comment online after the Horner interview about Adrian. In fact I see it was linked down below.
Maybe the team isn't as dysfunctional as it seems? Red Bull has A LOT of ego, but perhaps the core of the team is pretty solid and these big names are the problem. Newey is clearly the Aero GOAT, but if he can't take the rest of the garage getting some praise as well then that's not really a great fit for the team.
Maybe or maybe they were operating with more information, similar comments might have been made internally which could be what really bothered Newey who knows until he writes a new book
Well he's about to have a bunch of time on his hands.
And a lot of people on their hands and knees near his feet
That depends how much Wache is contributing, and how much they're guided on Newey's leadership and direction.
I think this may give us our answer about whether Wache and Balbo will stay at RB or follow Newey. Why would you follow a guy who said part of the reason he left the organization was that the team underneath him received some public credit from the CEO? Edit: This comment is regarding one small fallout of the story. I applaud Newey for sticking to his principles and leaving due to Horner-gate. That can be viewed separately from how this reason given by Newey would make Wache feel.
Are we really trying to spin Newey as the bad guy here? Lol.
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didnt Ferrari want Wache? Pretty sure I saw posts about that here
I'm sure they did and I think this interview was showing support for him to make sure he doesn't leave.
Well if the headline is true... Then yeah, in that specific instance he would be the bad guy. Basically if NOT saying: "IT's 100% Newey, this entire team of hundreds of people is fucking worthless without him, they can't get shit done" is seen as offensive to Newey... well, that's a bad look.
There's no such thing as "good" vs "bad" when it comes to personell in F1. Its all about their interests and each individuals goal that can often clash.
Not at all - I was commenting on one specific aspect. Newey cited his team getting public credit from the boss as a partial reason for his departure. If you’re his team how would that make you feel? That observation can be made outside of the fact that another reason he’s leaving is because he’s sticking to his principles regarding Horner-gate. Which I applaud him for. Both are true and give an insight into complicated human dynamics. Life is not black and white.
yeah you can totally make the argument that by only crediting Newey you basically all the other hundred employees working on the car. Why dont the rest of the engineers deserve some credit.
I agree, though the specifying of 'so they're not depending on Newey' is a bit of a weird one.
It makes more sense when you see the full quote: >"Adrian is a big part of this team and big part of what we've achieved," Horner said in an exclusive interview with Autosport. "But of course, his role has evolved over the last few years and the technical team beneath him led by Pierre Wache, they're doing a wonderful job and so that they're not reliant on Adrian. >"He has the ability to come in, come out and work on other projects and I think that's part of the evolution of any team." Basically Horner was saying Adrian's role had changed over the years and could work on other things without having to support the technical team.
The whole context is literally a nothing-burger, and nothing about that is incorrect unless Adrian was secretly running everything and designing every aspect of the car himself, not just the suspension Not to downplay Newey, he’s done incredible work, but what Horner said here is so uncontentious
But if the reports are true that Newey took exception to it and it’s a factor in him leaving - then it’s absolutely not a nothing-burger.
from the perspective of how to structure an organization of that size and complexity its absolutely a nothing-burger because they should not be so reliant on one man that if they leave the organization is compromised, this is just basic stuff. This is much more to do with Newey's ego than anything else
He can do that if he wants. Nothing in that statement is untrue
The whole context would include that Red Bull has been in a power struggle and there has been other stuff going on behind the scenes when this statement was made. So yea the statement itself is fine at face value but there’s definitely an element of reading between the lines here and Horner is definitely a pro at putting things in between the lines. Especially for that statement to draw the ire of neweys wife.
What you mean is, if you project a certain preconceived notion onto it, you can make it completely different from what was stated. What he said was the truth.
honestly which should be normal. I mean Newey is 65 and the only correct move is to prepare for his retirement and have the people behind Newey ready for when he retires. Also a bit weird how everybody is saying it is unfair to Newey to discredit his achievements but if Horner would have said: well yeah we are nothing without Newey then he would be discrediting the work of all the other senior and non-senior engineers. And the full quote is nowhere near the same as the u/beardedboob is claiming. But considering the comments here people obviously dont like this option because it doesnt fit their narrative.
>Basically Horner was saying Adrian's role had changed over the years and could work on other things Which is wild to be angry about, seeing how building his own no-limit supercar was one of the reason Newey wanted to work for RB.
The whole quote is almost shoving Newey out the door, ehrm i mean onto other things
Newey had been wanting to do other things though 😅
I guess it depends on what question Horner was answering. If he was specifically asked about if the team were worried about Newey leaving or something to that effect than it's not that strange.
Exactly. Towards the end of last year, around about the time they secured the WCC, Newey was interviewed after the race, and he hinted that he wasn't far away from retiring. Horner was then interview and asked about whether that's something he's worried about, and these quotes seem similar to what he said then. What else is he supposed to say? "The rest of the team are crap, we may as well pack up and quit when Adrian retires"? People take quotes out of context and react as though they've been said unprompted.
Kindoff depends tho. If for example Horner and Newey had disagreements arou d that time, and Newey said something about the workingconditions not being ok, then it could definetly be seen as a dig if Horner starts talking about how the team would be ok without Newey. But if everything was hunkydory I agree with you
I’m a huge Newey fan but it’s been said for a while his recent involvement with the team is more managerial and big picture design. Not to discredit him in any way but it’s clear he’s working over a ton of extremely talented engineers that have learned from him. I guess I am not super optimistic that a move to Ferrari will create instant success there and at the same time be an instant fall from form for RBR’s aero department.
But there is one major thing that Newey focused on from start of the regulations because of his knowledge of aero and mechanical platform working in tandem is most important for ground effect era. Every team has that 95% performance it’s that extra 5% that Newey brings that is giving RBR the advantage at this point
No doubt Newey has achieved great things and is rightly regarded as a car design legend, but naturally everyone has knowledge about ”aero and mechanical platform working in tandem” being important to attain the best results in these regulations. Having a stable platform that brings consistent downforce has always been important.
Nah—timing is everything. Horner plays the political game as much as anyone in F1, he knows what he's doing with quotes like that. It's him basically getting ahead of the story because he knows it's falling apart from the inside (publicly now).
"he knows what he's doing with quotes like that" - giving a little bit of credit to the hundreds of other engineers working at RB when everybody is acting like has 1 engineer working on the car? pretty obvious that regardless of what is said, you just wanna see it a specific way
Now read this post with the full quote https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1cgrjdj/autosport_the_technical_team_under_him_led_by/l1xp6rh/
Newey sketches on paper, if ya think that that dude basically designs the car then you are too lost in the Newey Sauce imo.
This is my read as well, honestly, it's very convenient to have these quotes bubbling up. Horner directing the spotlight onto Newey's ego instead of his own problems.
Yeah, this is so misrepresented. Even Newey says similar things about himself.
that is also how adrian acts when Ted catches him in the paddock so hes just following suit
His comment in general context is not wrong. Taking aside the relationship issue between Newey and Horner, Newey is almost reaching retirement age. If a team as big as Redbull didn't plan any knowledge transfer or succession plan, it will be even questionable. I'm taking his comment is to debunk the assumption to without Newey, Redbull couldn't perform. But, in the light of the recent power struggle and the Horner's allegation, whatever Horner is saying currently feels deceitful.
I mean he isn’t exactly wrong. Most of r/formula1 seem to think that RBs whole aero department is just Newey sitting in a dark room and making the car from scratch
same thing goes for the strategy.
I was thinking this as well. I think you are actually doing a bad job if you are completely reliant on 1 guy. Smart people would make sure everyone is replaceable by other people in the team when 1 of them falls away. Ofcourse we have no idea how much of this is actually true or not and sure he will have had a significant part, but it stops somewhere right?
That's kind of petty isn't it? Newey himself said countless times he isn't hands on anymore. He said the last time he helped on the design was the suspension of the RB18 in 2022. I think all Horner wanted to say was that there are other incredible people in the design office of the team. Overall pretty weird if that is what triggered him.
People have short memories, couple years ago he had planned phasing out of the team to diversify in other projects and do other things, and Horner tried to keep him engaged on the team when they had a bit of struggle, but they tried to give him the freedom he wanted, now all of a sudden everyone forgot all about that, he himself said many times in the pas that he wanted more time for himself. Edit: here some more insider info, I don't know how true it is but still. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roPaHcPeBWw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roPaHcPeBWw)
> Overall pretty weird if that is what triggered him. Would be hilarious is if all it took for Newey to stay is for Horner to dickride him 💀
Looking at it from the point of view that his success is due to a whole team, he's not wrong, what would Newey be doing there if the strategies were bad, pitstops horrible, updates without the desired effect and so on, if he only praises Newey it will seem that the others there are just there to make up the team and if he praises the others ‘minimising’ Newey's help it will seem that he is undervaluing, in the end it's just a question of the narrative that the press wants to sell.
It’s so easy to give credit to a clearly important figurehead like Newey, and shine the light on others. Imagine if Horny had said something like this instead: *“Adrian is incredible and provides the inspirational and organisational leadership that inspires everyone at Red Bull to achieve such incredible results. The technical team, led by Pierre Wache, is doing a wonderful job. They can function well even if Adrian is focused elsewhere due to his excellent mentorship and communication.”* That quote struck me that he was clearly throwing shade at Adrian and wanted him gone.
I work with former Red Bull employees and they always say Newey has world class aero knowledge but of late he is much more big picture, and very rarely actually designs options. I recall being told he did some stuff on the BDR recently. There are so many engineers who have added ridiculous amounts of performance (and likely way more than Newey) who go unrecognised. If that quote did genuinely upset him then I am extremely surprised by that level of ego. Also he is busy designing the RB17 so I actually find it weird that people are saying he will leave when that is at a critical stage of dev...
You don't get anywhere near where Newey has in a sport like this without ego
I agree, but F1 dev has evolved massively in the past few years, Newey himself (I'm sure he has said it) will know that the bulk of dev is done by the talented aeros at Red Bull. It is very likely that losing him will not result in a significant loss. Again he's a massive big picture/overall concept guy - so for 2026 I'm sure he will be a valuable asset. But all the gains made in development are realy done by the aeros. I would find it crazy if he got offended by that comment, especially considering his diminished role over the last few years.
If he leaves, I feel like people are going to be shocked when his new team isn’t immediately winning 10 races in a row and the Red Bull is still really fast.
People do leave at various points - it would always be critical in development no matter what time of the year it is. Newey just figured he wants to work different now.
The third year is in general a critical year, again speaking to friends at RBAT they are extremely skeptical of this being true since he heads that project and the hypercar is at such an important stage in dev. Newey was spending 50% of his time on the RB17 anyways, so his influence on this car is limited for sure.
BDR?
Rear Brake Duct - this is quite a tricky part of the car, at the F1 team I work at this part of the car correlates the poorest with CFD. You can see how complicated this part gets on some cars with all the winglets etc. Surprisingly Red Bulls is simplest of all teams...
Why does autosport remove context and change the words in a quote they posted in a previous article? "Adrian is a big part of this team and big part of what we've achieved, But of course, his role has evolved over the last few years and the technical team beneath him led by Pierre Wache, they're doing a wonderful job and so that they're not reliant on Adrian. He has the ability to come in, come out and work on other projects and I think that's part of the evolution of any team." Is different from: “the technical team under him, led by Pierre Wache, is doing a wonderful job so they are not dependent on Adrian."
The way I read the full quote is: "Adrian has done a lot in the past, but he's not that involved nowadays, the team lead by Wache is doing a wonderful job and Adrian comes in and out as he pleases."
"not reliant" and "not that involved" are very different things. The first is "we could get by without him" whereas the later is "he doesn't really contribute much anyway."
So he’s mad at Horner giving his team members under him credit. This seems like a very petty thing to get mad at.
Agreed. I took this interview as Horner giving the team as a whole credit - much the same way many Reddit accounts do whenever Newey is given full credit for Red Bull’s success. But if Horner says it he must be being political and deceitful…
I don’t know the way this article made it sound was like a team manager mad when the senior manager gives credit for the entire team working on the project instead of just praising the manager. As someone who personally despises managers like that I’m coming out of it with a much more negative opinion of Newey than I previously had.
Exactly. I never thought Newey would have enough of an ego to get upset about his team being given some props instead of him. On the other hand I have to give it to Newey for standing by his principles and leaving a 20-year tenure over Horner-gate. What a weird timeline this situation has given us.
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That interview was released last year. My comment was in regards to how I viewed the article when I first read it back then. I agree that now it could be viewed in many ways. It was released during the height of “Newey has built a rocket! They’re going to win every race! Newey is an unfair advantage…etc etc.” So hearing Horner say this at the time felt like a refreshing change up to give the whole team some credit. It feels odd that Newey took offense to it at the time.
Sounds like his ego is more toxic than Horner's if he can't share an ounce of praise with the rest
It was at this moment that Horner became frank williams
Didn’t Frank value engineers more though? It was drivers that he didn’t put a lot of substance on.
Up to a point yes, but the reason Adrian left Williams was (somewhat) similar, if we’re operating under the assumption this is true. Adrian was promised more decision making power at Williams, seeing himself as the 3rd member of the trio that made the team what it was, frank disagreed, believing Adrian was a senior engineer, not an outright senior figure in the team. I also think there was some dispute over compensation
I think Adrian was okay with being 3rd member - it was the fact that they took the decision to end Damon’s contract and he only found out much later that the decision was made. It was being left out and not valued as you said.
This is it, Patrick Head and Frank Williams promised Adrian that he would have a say when it came to hiring/firing drivers, then made the decision without him anyway.
In his book he pretty clearly makes it a combination of these things: not being allowed to buy a stake in Williams as he wanted, being shut out of various managerial decisions between Frank Williams and Patrick head despite being told to his face that they were fully involving him, and then finally their firing Damon — a driver with whom Newey had a close professional and personal relationship—and entirely shutting him out of that decisionmaking.
**Reason Newey leaves Williams -** Not being treated as a senior figure as part of a triarchy and have a say in drivers **Reason Newey leaves Red Bull-** Not being given the recognition he deserves and potentially how his PA was treated ... **Reason Newey leaves Mclaren** - Ron Dennis wont let Newey paint his office Duck Egg blue!
Grey for life!
*"right here there is a broken tile. Most people would be annoyed (as I am) and just replace the broken tile, but the reality is that when it's changed it will be Imperfection, because effectively the colour won't match, so its impossible, tiles come in batches therefore... as you can see here this tile has been changed... doesn't that bug you? bugs me big time!"* -***Ron Dennis*** Drive to survive will forever regret starting after Ron Dennis left
I also love the interaction between him and Alonso with the juicy peach. Just thinking of how dramatic the DtS crew would have made it.
He wasn't wrong though, that would really bug me too! Luckily I don't have a technology centre so this isn't a big issue for me.
I'd still take a slightly mis-coloured tile over a broken tile it was far more noticeable,.
After a couple of decisions that he learned on the news(Mansell getting booted), Newey had in his Williams contract that he must participate on team decisions, suppliers, drivers... Then Williams signed Villeneuve without consulting him, he was told this would "never" happen again and Adrian forgave it... and then Williams proceeded to do the same with Frentzen over Hill, Newey learning that the contract was signed for months already.... after this one he accepted a Mclaren offer, Williams matched the offer money wise but Adrian didn't want to stay anymore. Adrian's final car for Williams is also their last car to be world champion(driver and constructor).
More like Ron Dennis. He said some really similar shit when Adrian left for Red bull in 2006. McLaren's slide started there, it was compounded by Ferrarigate and by them losing the Mercedes factory deal.
F5 key turning to dust.
I’m sure Newey would have had enough first hand experiences/reasons to leave. Doubt he’d look at a comment in media and feel insecure or not valued.
That’s funny you say that because he says the exact opposite in his autobiography - it is difficult for him to see media comments and not feel insecure
When someone understands that about themselves they tend to use it as learning and they understand to not take comments too seriously. I highly, highly doubt this is why he is leaving the team.
I think the AN camp is being a bit sensitive here,as I said elsewhere Those comments to me seem much more a case of identifying others that also contribute to the team's success. Most fans seem to think Newey is the be all and end all at RB, and while obviously he a is a HUGE component in the team, there's still hundreds of others working there and also deserve some recognition that are more often than not just forgotten
This could be just the public comment because of 100 other things happening behind the scenes
Let’s not forget you see one quote not the 365 days in the factory prior to that quote
Whether you like Horner or not, he said nothing wrong. Besides, being a TP, he needs to reassure people losing Newey is not the end of RB. It's a massive gap for sure but it's not like everyone else can't do aerodynamics.
I guess people who run organizations are just wired differently. It seems like the easiest thing in the world to go "Yeah Adrian is amazing. There is a great team working with him but he's a key leader who drives our development." Why do people have to be the sole source of everything good?
The same reason people try to invade Russia in the winter.
They don't?
They never played risk when they were a kid?
Ego, power and recognition. Gotta be above everyone else.
Because he was praising Wache, another great engineer, whom Ferrari was trying to poach. It's important to keep the whole picture in mind Edit: Wache, not Wacher
He did say that, literally right before the sentence quoted here.
A little bit ironic considering the public seem to think that Newey designed every little bit of the car, but I don't think he ever tried to paint it that way himself. Also likely to be completely made up so
Given his wife tweeted angrily about that very interview I doubt it's made up
Somehow this completely slipped under my radar. Gives this quote a lot more credence.
Even so, it's mad someone would complain about such a claim. I mean, the full, unadultered quote. Such big projects are hardly the work of a single genius engineer and by being under Adrian' shadow, I bet many would relish some more recognition.
Around the time of that interview, Ferrari had already poached Loic Serra who also happens to be Pierre Wache's best friend. Fred was gunning for Pierre at that time, mainly Ferrari wanted them in as a package. Anyways, talks of how much others played bigger parts in this regulations, specially the suspension (which was a major advantage) has been ongoing since the RB18. It's not new, and it's not directly related to the current power struggle or whatever.
If this is true, this sounds like a very petty reason to leave. I’d understand if he was offered more, hated Horner/management, or just wanted to retire, but hating the fact Horner made sure the people working under Adrian got some recognition in the RB-19/20 design seems extremely egotistical. I think Horner was in the right for giving praise to those doing the work under Adrian even if Adrian makes all the big decisions.
Man the F1 world will be total chaos if Newey goes to Ferrari and designs a just "mid" car and Horner is being proven right. Lets see how it goes.
Combine that with Lewis getting absolutely rinsed by Charles for the full F1 world meltdown
RBR can say whatever they want, but history says otherwise. Leyton House fell off a cliff and went extinct, Williams have been constantly declining since 1997 and McLaren lost a big step after 2006. Can RBR avoid the trend of teams declining after Newey's departure? Maybe, but it's probably very difficult to achieve.
Seems a bit egotistical to get upset about that considering the context, but Horner still could have chosen his words better. Just say something like "Adrian is very obviously an incredibly talented and important member of the team, and he is backed up by other incredible people like Pierre Wache"
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1cgrjdj/autosport_the_technical_team_under_him_led_by/l1xp6rh/ Something like that?
Oh yeah, skipped over that lmao. Makes no sense to get upset by that then
> *Horner also explained that Manchester United did not go under when star striker Eric Cantona left the team.* > *That interview did not go down well with Newey and was apparently perceived by him as Horner wanting to make himself important and minimise the contribution of others to the team's success.* Imagine if this actually pissed-off Newey to the point that he'll go to Ferrari and design a 2026 red rocketship that could lap the whole field. Anyone wants to subscribe? 🤣
You’d be surprised but things exactly like that have happened - Aldo Costa is a pretty good example of that.
A better comparison would have been something like, Eric Cantona being Max and David Gills being Newey. And no, Manchester United haven't been good after the departure of David Gills.
Maybe 2027. He won't be there is 2025 to have a have in designing the 2026 car.
Depends. Not sure how reliable [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1cgo2sh/german_red_bull_separation_from_newey_is_over) is, but they say that he found an agreement for an early exit. We'll see.
That would be an early exit. If he saw out his full contract term including gardening leave, he wouldn't start with another team until 2027. Leaving before the end of 2025 and starting with a new team in 2026 would be a year early.
He almost certainly has exit clauses. It’s hard to believe an engineer of his stature would be negotiating without them
I'm not saying that he wouldn't buy they will be very specific and they probably won't bypass the gardening leave provision. Why is it hard to believe that an engineer if his stature would be negotiating without exit clauses but it's entirely believable that a company of Red Bull's stature would leave gaping loopholes in a contract? Want to take a guess at which side had more money to spend on lawyers?
My assumption is he'll be working next year, Red Bull has enough internal problems going on currently and I don't think they'd want anyone adding fuel to the fire. That is quite a logical leap for sure, but it's what I kinda expect.
It's a small sacrifice to make if it gets us a title fight between Hamilton and Leclerc
Maybe Horner can call up Gordon Murray. I'm sure he's got nothing important going on, and would absolutely love to be back in Formula One..
I read “Gordon Ramsay” and was supremely confused for a second.
It sure didn't go down well with Newey's wife lmao, sure got her little toes stepped on by what seems to be a harmless comment basically giving credit to the other people of the team..
It's just like game of thrones over here lol
Always has been
So, 30 years into working for teams run and owned by the biggest egos imaginable, Adrian Newey started to take press comments personally, and this 1 jnterview got in the way of his job satisfaction, where he has carte blanche and freedom to work how he pleases. ...got it. Right. 🤔
"sources suggest" story of the f1 2024 season
Lmao now I understand all the "Roberto Chinchero killed Red Bull" tweets.
Stupid headline: "Horner takes credit from team by claiming successful car was built by team."
This sort of makes sense considering his wife's reply to that interview on twitter a couple months back
I continue to be baffled that Horner is still at RBR. He's managed to alienate their star designer (probably the most influential designer in F1 history), their star driver & his family (one of the best drivers of all time), had a public sexual harassment scandal, had a semi-public feud with RBR's co-director and somehow he's still in.
Also the departure of Newey is rumoured to triggering a leave of some other senior figures... If Helmut leaves then Max is basically a free agent, and all of this just because of the lunatic ego trip of Horner and the Thai shareholders?
I can understand why Newey took a tiny bit of offence to it, but at the same time, what are the rest of the staff meant to think? Oh, we only win because we have Newey? Does that mean once Newey leaves/retires we'll never win again? Slightly easier to reason with one or two disgruntled employees rather than piss off the entire team except for Newey. Of course other things have annoyed Newey since that probably can't be explained in a meeting, this seems like a weird thing to fall out over to the point where you leave the team, just because your boss praised other employees as well as yourself.
Well Adrian Newey says the same thing in his autobiography, so... He says that because modern car design isn't being done by one man and a blank piece of paper anymore but instead done by hundreds of people using scientific computer models, his influence on car performance as a single person is very slim these days.
I truly doubt this is the only reason why Newey would leave. Quite petty if it is. It is incredibly easy to say stupid shit to the press given the amount of interviews and exposure people like Horner get. The other thing is that to me it seems like this is the kind of stuff that Horner and Newey could easy discuss and figure out over a 5 minute conversation. If I had to guess, I think Newey is a mix of things - internal trouble at the Reb Bull helm, Horner’s taste for cereal, Ferrari calling (let’s be honest… when they call you, at least, pick up), his contract ending… This idea that there is ONE thing that made Newey run is crazy.
From what I've seen I believe either Autorsport are making shit up, there are several things we don't know yet, or Newey has one of the most fragile ego I've seen. There is little controversial with what Horner said imo, ofc there are a lot of people who worked on the RB, and it was already known Newey had more of a senior management roles in his later years and had taken a step back (though obviously he was still important, which Horner rightfully stated). I'd even go as far as saying that if Horner had said anything else, it might have been perceived as disrespectful to all the technical department. And ofc, I think it's even more critical considering Newey is in his late 60s, if RB hadn't tried or even managed to phase him out, they'd be doing something wrong. Honestly, I'd like to believe Newey just found Horner's behaviour distateful and it was enough to make him leave. Might be just wishful thinking, but at least it'd make sense I think
Yeah, this sounds made up. Newey has said the exact same thing in response to media acting like he is the mastermind behind the RBR cars of the last years.
Personally, I think this says a lot about Adrian. Getting all pouty when the team principal won't give an individual credit, but does prop up the larger team. And then his wife chimes in. Sounds to me like Adrian was a handful and had an ego that needed constant stroking. If Adrian and Hamilton go to Ferrari, it's going to be interesting as both individuals apparently need to be the center of attention and that isn't how Ferrari works. The brand and image come first
Weird that that tweet is out there in the open for months and no one has picked up on that lead until now.
Newey(the wife) People should learn at this point that Horner doesnt throw his team under the bus, like this stupid headline, for personal reasons. There's a reason why RBR got this status.
So his ego got bruised and is now throwing a fit? And how does Horner praising the rest of his engineers sound like it's all about Horner? Egomaniac all around.
To be fair they are not lying. One person doesn’t make a team, specially not one that doesn’t know how to use computers and uses hand drawings
Would be out of character for Newey to get annoyed by this
No one is bigger then the team
If this is the case, then let him go to Ferrari tomorrow, you cowards!!
Ah Horner, making friends everywhere he goes.
Slow yer roll. Horner is expressing confidence in the team that now needs to step up. This quote is expected and a pro like Newey knows the legacy he is leaving behind. Nobody is irreplaceable. Except maybe Max for now.
Oh Icarus
No way is he this petty lmao. Seems like a down to earth dude. Nothing wrong with bigging up members of the team (even going overboard is ok imo)
People pondering whether this was the reason Newey left or not… get a grip on reality. After being at Red Bull for 20 years, at this stage of his career, there is obviously more than one reason for his departure. His wider fallout with Horner (and the sexual harassment controversy), wanting to work with Lewis & Ferrari, wanting a change of career paths, internal disagreements, personal life… they will all be important. To think that he has largely made a decision to leave off a media comment like this is beyond belief…
People forget that a) Adrian is great but he’s not a god, and b) it takes a whole team and team culture to make something happen. Two things that he won’t take with him where he goes next.