Ted Kravitz says Adrian Newey didn’t want to join £556m F1 team because they needed ‘too much’ work

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Adrian Newey ended rife speculation as to where he would end up come 2025 by announcing he will be joining Aston Martin.

Newey sent the world of Formula 1 into a frenzy when he announced that he would be leaving Red Bull after the first quarter of 2025 back in April.

The 65-year-old has been with the Milton Keynes-based squad since 2006 and has designed the machines that have seen them have a meteoric rise in F1. During Newey’s time at Red Bull, they have won six constructors’ championships and seven drivers’ titles with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen as of the end of the 2023 season.

After Newey’s announcement, teams up and down the grid were flocking to land his signature for next season. He came close to signing with Ferrari after the Maranello squad brought in Lewis Hamilton, while Flavio Briatore put an ambitious offer to Newey from Alpine.

Eventually, the legendary engineer confirmed his next challenge as he opted to join Aston Martin for 2025. Many have since speculating as to why he came to this decision, with Jaime Alguersuari citing working with Fernando Alonso as a key reason for Newey joining Aston Martin.

Williams project would be ‘too much’ for Adrian Newey according to Ted Kravitz

Speaking on the Sky F1 Podcast, pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz explained why Newey decided not to return to one of his old teams for next year.

Newey has never been someone to join a top team and instead relishes the challenge of building a team up, as evidenced from his time at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.

Williams are going through a ‘transition’ phase according to Kravitz, as team principal James Vowles prepares for the 2025 season with Alex Albon and new signing Carlos Sainz as his drivers.

Newey worked with Williams from 1991 to 1996, and due to the Grove-based squad’s huge task at hand of rebuilding the team from the back of the grid, Kravitz believes it would have been too intense for him to go back.

“I think Williams would have been, it’s just too much, it’s too much.

“He knows what the Williams factory is, he knows how much there needs to change. I mean, that’s a 10-year plan, isn’t it?

“It’s not a new facility that has everything here, it’s a facility in transition.”

Williams were the lowest-valued Formula 1 team in 2023

Williams have fallen from grace over the years since Newey left in the late 1990s as the team find themselves towards the back of the grid.

So far in 2024, the team have scored six points through Albon, as Logan Sargeant was replaced by Franco Colapinto from Monza onwards after scoring just one point in 36 races.

Furthermore, according to a report by Forbes, Williams were the lowest-valued team in 2023, sitting at $725 million, or roughly £556 million.

In comparison, Aston Martin – Newey’s future team – is worth roughly just over £1 billion and had a 2023 revenue of £222 million, while Williams had just £123 million.

The task at hand is monumental at Williams, and Aston Martin provides a manageable enough project for Newey to give the team the spark they need.