Newey free to join F1 rival in 2025, Red Bull warned of “unmitigated disaster”

Red Bull announced on Wednesday morning that Newey would be leaving the world champion outfit early next year after deciding that he no longer wished to remain a part of the team.

He will continue working for the Milton Keynes-based operation until the early part of 2025, which will involve finishing his RB17 hypercar, and will in the meantime attend specific races to work trackside – including this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.

However, it is understood that he will no longer play an active role in technical developments at the team and will not be involved in meetings on future car progress.

While Newey originally had a contract that ran until the end of 2025, and had a further non-compete clause that could have sidelined him for another 12 months, his legal representatives have agreed with Red Bull to an earlier parting of ways.

Red Bull has announced that Newey’s contract will end in the first quarter of next year, with it understood that from March he will in theory be free to join a rival outfit.

Other teams have inevitably been interested in luring Newey on board, with Aston Martin and Ferrari both known to have made lucrative offers to secure his services.

It is understood that Newey has ruled out any interest in going to Aston Martin, but Ferrari does remain an option – with it suggested that team principal Fred Vasseur met privately with the famed F1 designer on Tuesday to try to move things forward.

And while no deal is in place yet, negotiations are likely to continue as Vasseur makes a personal push to try to convince Newey to join him in time for Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at the squad next year.

The timing of Newey’s availability is not perfect in terms of hitting the ground running with the new 2026 car rules, as much of the design concepts will already be in place by the time he can provide his input.

However, it still comes early enough for Newey’s influence to be felt and potentially have an impact in how things shake up for F1’s new rules era.

One of Red Bull’s rivals says it is flabbergasted that the door is open for Newey to be available early enough to help for 2026 – as it could hurt the world champion squad so much in helping one of its main competitors move ahead.

The situation has been likened to how then McLaren team principal Martin…