Ever since Red Bull’s former CTO resigned from his position after almost 20 years, Newey has been linked to almost all teams on the Formula 1 grid, from the ever alluring Ferrari, to Mercedes looking for a big signing after the departure of Lewis Hamilton, including Aston Martin and its Honda deal.
A return to McLaren, the team he had won a title with in 1998, has been rumoured as well, however team owner of the Woking-based team Zak Brown mentioned in an interview with BBC that he has no interest in signing the acclaimed engineer, especially considering how much McLaren has improved under the guid of its actual team principal.
Brown renewed confidence in Andrea Stella, especially since he’s reinvented the team since he arrived in 2015 and following his promotion to TP in December 2022.
“He unlocked the talent that we already had here,” Brown says. “We’ve got approximately 1,000 people here in F1. I changed three. But it was three leaders. So 997 are the same people who gave us the [uncompetitive] car at the beginning of 2023.”
“A leader’s job is to get the most out of their people and that’s what we didn’t have previously. We weren’t able to let the talent we have in here flourish.
“Andrea communicates very well. He listens very well. He’s very hard-working. He’s very technical. He leads by example. All the traits you would want in a great leader. He unlocked the potential this team clearly had sitting there.”
Brown said that he was even shocked when he offered Stella the team principal role and he said no the first time. He always questioned why it took him so long.
“Truth be known,” Brown says, “I offered it to him the first time around [when Seidl was appointed Racing Director in January 2020], and he declined it. He felt he wasn’t ready. Andrea is someone who knows his capabilities and doesn’t overreach.”
“The second time around he knew me better, knew the team better, even though he’d been here a while. And still he didn’t say yes in the first phone call. It took a couple of days because he’s very methodical, very thoughtful.”
Brown also focused on his journey when he joined the team, especially since he took on the team when they were 9th in the championship.
“It was worse than I thought it was,” he says. “We were ninth in the championship. We had blank race cars, I think three sponsors. We had upset fans, upset racing drivers and we had a pretty down and out racing team. It was pretty scary.”
“The team needed resources, because we were losing a tonne of money, to be able to invest in drivers and technology and people,” he says.
Progress was steady from then on, including changing engine suppliers from Honda to Renault and then to Mercedes, until in 2022 Brown “felt like it was stalled out”.
“Put Andrea in charge. He does a little bit of reorganising – a little bit more than a little – does tremendous work, rallies the team, and we’ve been on fire ever since. But we’ll hit some speed bumps along the way.”
He also commiserated the fact that his relationship with Christian Horner has diminished since he joined F1, especially after Red Bull breached the cost cap.
“I’ve known Christian for about 25, 30 years. We used to race against each other. I would say we used to get on.
“I believe in transparency. I believe in putting your hand up when you get something wrong. The cost cap, the excuses behind that, I never really heard a ‘we just got it wrong’. I heard excuses and not taking ownership.
“When someone breaches the cost cap, and doesn’t seem to kind of take it seriously, that’s kind of hitting the integrity and core of the sport. To me, it’s not personal. It’s protecting our sport.
“And when I see things not consistent with our values, I’m going to speak up about it because it’s important people understand where we’re coming from.”
“I realise that’s not necessarily always going to be popular, or make friends with everyone in the pit lane, but as long as I’m friends with McLaren, our fans, our partners, that’s what’s most important to me.”
He also reaffirmed that the team will not be singing Adrian Newey as he leaves Red Bull.
“We’re not going to sign Adrian,” Brown says. “I’m very happy with the team. Adrian is a great friend, huge talent, resume [CV] second to none. But with what we have in place here, I couldn’t be happier. We can get the job done. I’m happy with the race team we have and we’re going to try to win the world championship with the team sitting here today.”
Can they do it this year?
“It’s gonna be a slug-fest. I think it’s gonna be a slug-fest between all four teams [Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari]. You’re gonna see epic battles. Eight drivers that can show up at almost any track and win, and it’s gonna be exciting.”
