How Christian Horner reacted when asked about Adrian Newey’s move to Aston Martin

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Red Bull have known for some time that they would be losing one of the greatest assets in Adrian Newey but it was confirmed on Tuesday that he would be joining rivals Aston Martin in 2025.

It brings to an end an era that has seen two distinct periods of dominance for Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen securing a combined seven Drivers’ Championships.

Verstappen will hope to match the German’s record of four titles on the bounce this year and the significant lead he built in the first half of the season may prove pivotal to fend off the charging Lando Norris.

On both occasions, Red Bull have been so successful because they’ve set off on the right foot at the beginning of a new set of regulations.

In 2022 and 2023 particularly, nobody could get close to Red Bull and it’s only now that the likes of McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari have narrowed the gap.

Adrian Newey’s expertise lies in finding the best way to design a car within a given set of parameters, often noticing things teams of designers disregard.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links

It makes losing the 65-year-old ahead of the new set of regulations being introduced in 2026 is a blow for Christian Horner and speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, journalist Craig Slater has shared his interaction with the Red Bull team principal when asked about Newey’s departure.

Newey had become frustrated with the lack of credit Horner had given him for his work in recent years, suggesting that Red Bull’s success was much more of a team effort.

Aston Martin have also offered Newey a bigger stake in the team, meaning he now has an even greater incentive to develop yet another championship-winning machine.

How Christian Horner reacted to Adrian Newey’s move to Aston Martin

Talking about the potential destinations for Newey and how Horner would have felt about him joining one of Red Bull’s closest rivals, Slater said: “I asked him that very question, I said, ‘Did you breathe a sigh of relief?’ because it was apparent that he was coming here [to Aston Martin].

“I asked Christian Horner, ‘Did you breathe a sigh of relief that it was Aston Martin, not one of your direct rivals at the moment?’

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage

“And he gave a fairly vague answer about not knowing where Adrian was going to go, about it being up to him and he’d support him whatever he chose to do.

“I like you [Ted Kravitz] am suspicious of the idea that Newey’s years of decorating the Red Bull trophy cabinet somehow earned him the liberty to break his contract early.”

Slater later said that Horner and Newey have ‘zero’ communication regarding the current car but do still talk, while Ted Kravitz elaborated that he had been ‘frozen out of all technical matters’.

Christian Horner believes he knows what’s wrong with Red Bull’s 2024 car

Newey suggested during his Aston Martin unveiling that he decided during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend that it was time to leave Red Bull.

From that point, the 65-year-old no longer had any input on the RB20 and whether or not it’s a coincidence that the car’s performance dropped off from that point will be heavily discussed if the team failed to win either championship.

Horner believes he knows what’s 100% responsible for the problems Red Bull are facing but fixing those issues is another matter.

Helmut Marko hopes Red Bull will be competitive again in Austin but that means getting through the next two races without losing too much ground on their rivals.

It would be a surprise if McLaren weren’t leading the Constructors’ Championship at that point and Verstappen will want to reduce the damage Norris can do to his lead in the Drivers’ Championship.