Max Verstappen says he is “very happy” that Adrian Newey has penned an extension to remain with Red Bull in Formula 1.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner took advantage of Newey becoming disillusioned at McLaren to persuade the technical guru to make the switch to Milton Keynes in 2006.
Newey soon transformed the energy drinks constructor into a front-running contender, toppling the likes of Ferrari and McLaren to deliver four consecutive title doubles between 2010-13.
After diverting his attention away from F1 briefly, Newey returned to oversee the construction of the 2021 car that propelled Verstappen to title glory, followed by another championship double in 2022.
Newey’s vast knowledge of ground effect aerodynamics has seen the hugely successful RB18 be evolved further to produce an even more dominant RB19 package, with Red Bull convincingly swooping to five successive race wins at the start of the latest campaign.
Verstappen has denied that Newey’s stay will influence his future plans, but the Dutchman is adamant it is also key for Red Bull to retain the entire technical operation that has made it enjoy so much recent success.
“Well, nothing will influence anything to ‘28 because I have a contract so but yeah, I’m very happy of course, that Adrian stays, but that goes for everyone in the team, right?
“I mean, when you’re doing really well, you want to try and keep that whole group together. And that’s of course also the target for the team for the future,” he said.
Having seen select staff depart in recent months, new Ferrari chief Frederic Vasseur stated ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that the Italian team was “recruiting massively” and also confirmed that included personnel from rival outfits.
Reports in Italy suggested that the Scuderia was pursuing key technical figures from Red Bull, with the Austrian side’s head of aerodynamics, Enrico Balbo, touted as the most notable name that could end up making the switch to Maranello.
However, Horner has dismissed rumours that senior Red Bull members will be departing for Ferrari, citing that such individuals have been left bemused by the speculation.
With Red Bull announcing that Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies will take over from the outgoing Franz Tost as team principal at AlphaTauri, Horner has also insisted that discussions over the Frenchman’s exit won’t result in a ‘hostage’ situation involving current employees.
“I mean, again, as usual, there’s plenty of speculation,” Horner acknowledged. “You know, will there be a hostage exchange for Laurent Mekies? Well, we don’t have any hostages.
“So in terms of personnel moving to Ferrari, certainly at a senior or medium level, there’s nothing planned. Individuals that have been mentioned in connection with Ferrari came to see me last week and mentioned their disbelief in some of these rumours.
“But, you know, it’s Formula 1, that will inevitably happen, but there’s no plans for any senior members of our team to be joining Maranello.”
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