Vasseur Reportedly Postpones Flight To Miami To Meet With Newey

Wednesday, 01 May 2024 at 20:00

Italian media report that Ferrari's team principal, Frederic Vasseur, has already met with Red Bull's departing Adrian Newey.

It was reported on Monday (29th of April) that the chief technical officer at Red Bull, the legendary and the most successful car designed in F1, had formally handed in his resignation to the Austrian team.

Two days later, on Wednesday (1st of May), the team from Milton Keynes announced the departure of the 65-year-old. Apparently, Newey will not participate in further development of Red Bull's F1 cars from now on.

Instead, the Briton will purely focus on his RB17 hypercar project until the beginning of 2025, when he will officially leave the team.

Newey should then be free to join another team if he desires to do so. It was suggested that he might be primarily interested in Ferrari, even though he has reportedly received a very lucrative offer from Aston Martin.

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One of the biggest Italian newspapers, which tends to have insight into what is going on in Ferrari, Gazzetta Dello Sport, now reports the Scuderia team principal has already met with the former chief technical officer at Red Bull to discuss potential future collaboration:

"Yesterday, Fred Vasseur, the team principal of Ferrari, did not travel with the team to Miami, where the race is on Sunday. Instead, he flew to London."

"The reason? To meet with Newey in the evening, perhaps to finalize the deal that has been whispered about for some time, which would bring the English genius to Maranello from next season."

Newey could be the last missing piece in Ferrari's puzzle, and the Italian newspaper suggests an agreement was probably already reached.

"It is likely that the announcement of his signing will be made after the Grand Prix. The designer will be able to immediately work on the 2026 car, without any gardening leave constraints, proving crucial with his ideas to best interpret the new technical regulations that will come into effect."

Lewis Hamilton, who surprisingly signed with the team from Maranello at the beginning of the season, is said to be an important factor in convincing Newey:

"For Newey, who has always dreamed of working with the seven-time world champion, this is a dream come true."

The 65-year-old Briton revealed on F1's Beyond the Grid podcast at the end of 2023 that his dream was to work with Champions like Fernando Alonso or Hamilton, but he didn't have the chance...

"For instance, working with Fernando and Lewis would have been fabulous. But it never happened. It's just circumstances sometimes, that's the way it is."

See where this is going? Newey has the chance to work with the seven-time World Champion starting in 2025, and it is up to him now to decide whether he still wants to do so.