Had the possibility of recruiting Newey been discussed when Hamilton was in his talks with Ferrari? “I can’t say,” he said in a way which made it obvious that it had.
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has run both Hamilton and Leclerc in lower categories and both clearly have big faith in him. Leclerc lays the team’s progress very much at his door. “We are in a good spiral. Fred has always shared with me what was his medium and long-term vision for the team. I have shared with him what I thought was the right thing. I think we’re in a good place to attract the best people in the world. However we are a really good team already. Whoever can come and make it even better would be super important and Adrian is one of those guys that can make a difference.
“Fred’s vision and his ability to put the people in the right environment in order to extract the best out of everyone is really, really amazing and that has made the difference. It’s very clear which are the points which need to be improved in the next few months and that helps the team, with a clear vision. Because when you attack those things you see the gain straight away.”
That plus Newey and a Leclerc/Hamilton line-up versus Verstappen in a Newey-less Red Bull? Is that how the final year of the current formula will look? That would have the makings of something quite fascinating – and at the centre of it all is a team boss who thought his F1 career was over when he departed from Renault at the end of 2016.