Newey will make “immediate impact” at any team he joins

Signing Red Bull’s outgoing chief technical officer Adrian Newey would be a major coup for any team, their driver Sergio Perez has admitted.

Red Bull announced yesterday Newey is to leave the team next year having helped create cars which have won them six constructors’ titles and seven drivers’ championships so far.

Perez, who scored all bar one of his six grand prix victories in cars designed by Newey, said he has “contributed a lot to the Red Bull philosophy” and expects him to continue his success elsewhere.

“I assume he will cause an immediate impact wherever he goes, whatever he does,” said Perez. “He’s a very clever guy, very hard worker.

“With Adrian, working with him, he’s much more than a designer. He can influence even strategies, set-up, he could have that influence on a race weekend.

“So to have him around on race weekends was great. He is obviously a very strong individual guy that wherever he goes, he will cause an immediate impact.”

Newey’s departure was “not ideal”, admitted Perez, though he stressed the team’s design department is well-equipped to continue without him.

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“Someone like Adrian has been tremendous to our team, to our organisation. He’s obviously a very good friend of mine as well in this time that we’ve spent together. But at the end of the day, there are times in life – I think he’s spent like 20 years at Red Bull – I think he probably wants to do something else.

“I think Red Bull is in a great place. It has a very good, very strong organisation with Pierre [Wache], with Enrico [Balbo], with Ben [Waterhouse]. I think the whole aero group is very strong and we’re just looking forward to the future.

“You’ve seen in the past with these big teams, big names, when they leave, they will always succeed. It doesn’t matter. It’s not down to one single individual. It’s a whole organisation. I think Christian [Horner] has done a great job in preparing for the next generation of what’s going to happen to Red Bull.”

Newey’s decision to leave the team follows months of speculation over the impact allegations made against Horner earlier this year has had on world champions’ management team, and doubts over the futures of significant figures such as Perez’s team mate Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko.

However Perez is confident the loss of Newey won’t prompt others to leave the team.

“I think…