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Adrian Newey has spoken to share the true status of his relationship with Christian Horner after the former Red Bull Racing chief took a public swipe at his long-time friend and ally. Newey was recruited by Horner to join Red Bull in 2006 and played an instrumental role in designing all of the team's world championship-winning cars. But their working partnership came to an abrupt end in 2024 when Newey suddenly announced he was leaving, and later agreed to join Aston Martin.
Promoting his new memoir, published this week, Horner said in one interview that he had been frustrated by Newey showing signs of wanting to leave Red Bull a decade earlier. In 2014, after four titles in a row for Sebastian Vettel, Mercedes emerged as the dominant force in F1.
They built by far the best engine in F1 and would go on to win eight constructors' titles in a row. In contrast, Red Bull spent years struggling to built up a head of steam with Renault engines which just couldn't compete with the Mercedes power unit.
Referencing that period, Horner said: "At the first sign of adversity, Adrian wanted to abandon ship. I felt very sad about that. I couldn't rely on him any more. Our partnership was not as solid as I'd previously believed."
Asked about it in Austin on Friday, ahead of this weekend's United States Grand Prix, Newey admitted he was "in conversation" about leaving at that time, but also offered some context to explain his thinking. He said: "As a chassis designer then, if the PU manufacturer has a bad year, that happens and you accept it.
"But if the PU manufacturer has a bad year and doesn't appear to have any intention of trying to address the problem, that's altogether a different matter, and that's quite bleak at that point. And that's the situation that, unfortunately, I faced in 2014.
"As it turned out, that situation didn't really change with that supplier until we changed to Honda in 2019. So you can imagine my pain and frustration at that. I don't think Christian fully understood that, perhaps. But I was in conversation."
Horner also said he was "blind-sided" by Newey's decision to leave Red Bull in 2024. In his memoir, he wrote of how he marched into Newey's office after being told his long-time ally had informed a shareholder of his intention to leave, only to be immediately shut down and told to speak instead to his then-manager, Eddie Jordan.
Publicly, Newey later said he had decided to leave Red Bull for a fresh challenge because things were "getting stale" there. He has never said it publicly, but it was also heavily reported at the time that Newey had been disillusioned by the internal power struggles at Red Bull at the time.
On a related note, the personal scandal that had erupted when, months earlier, Horner was accused of inappropriate behaviour by a female colleague, was also cited by many as a reason for Newey's exit. Horner denied the claims and was cleared of wrongdoing by two independent KCs hired by Austria-based Red Bull GmbH to investigate the matter.
But despite those claims, and the latest swipes in Newey's direction, the Aston Martin chief told reporters in Austin that he relationship with Horner is strong. He said: "Christian and I remain friends. As many of you know, I am godfather to his daughter, Olivia."
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