Niki Lauda once told me that for Ferrari to function at their best the team required some English blood in its veins. ‘Italians are all about romance and spaghetti, and on their own that’s not enough,’ he rasped in his typically forthright manner that would have the woke commissars reaching for smelling salts.

Which brings us to the subject of Lewis Hamilton and Formula One’s all-time supreme designer.

We know that Hamilton is joining the Scuderia next year, and we suspect Newey is at the very least contemplating doing the same, his departure from Red Bull now having been confirmed. He is being released early from his contract and has the freedom to guide a new team’s development in light of the incoming 2026 regulation revamp, the details of which will be out later this year.

He leaves Red Bull next spring and is a free agent. Strangely, he will still attend races meanwhile, perhaps 10, though some computer access was shut down the moment his impending departure was made known.

The fact he will still be travelling abroad is no doubt out of respect for all he has contributed to the team as it leading boffin, and a man of courtesy, across 20 years. Anyone else would have been placed on gardening leave pronto.

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Red Bull confirmed the departure of F1’s most successful designer Adrian Newey next spring

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Hamilton will joined Ferrari next season and Newey has been tipped to make the same move

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Newey is a legendary F1 designer and has been key to Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s success