MPH: Will Newey join Hamilton in Vasseur's Ferrari 'dream team?

Mark Hughes

The landscape of F1 looks set to change significantly – will the Ferrari's new 'super squad' feature Adrian Newey as well as Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc?

Frederic Vasseur Ferrari team boss Charles Leclerc 2024 Miami GP

Frederic Vasseur has brought in Lewis Hamilton to join Charles Leclerc – with Adrian Newey coming aboard Ferrari a distinct possibility too

DPPI

Mark Hughes

Hot on the heels of the confirmation of Adrian Newey’s departure from Red Bull (and the successful hard negotiation to reduce his gardening leave by almost two years) comes the unsurprising indication that Ferrari is pushing very hard indeed to recruit him.

Although there is no agreement in place and Adrian hasn’t even confirmed he isn’t going to simply retire, he would in theory be free to join the Scuderia – if he so chose – from around this time next year.

It’s an exciting possibility not just for Ferrari and/or Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc fans, but for F1 itself, one which holds the promise of a new order. Or at the very least a fierce threat to the established one.

Coming on top of Hamilton’s surprise recruitment for ’25, it’s a validation of Ferrari’s increasing competitive stature after years of under-achievement. Neither Leclerc nor Hamilton bothered to hide their excitement at the possibility of Newey joining them.

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Miami GP 2024

Hamilton didn’t conceal his delight in the possibility of working with Ferrari

DPPI

“Obviously I would be very happy,” said Leclerc in Miami. “Adrian is one of those guys in the paddock you hope to be working with one day in your career. We have an incredible team in Ferrari at the moment – in the last seven to eight months we are the team which has progressed the most. However, adding Adrian to a team like this would be amazing.”

Hamilton said Newey was “at the top of the list” of people he’d like to work with saying, “Adrian’s got such a great track record, and he’s obviously done an amazing job through his career. He’d be an amazing addition. Ferrari’s already got a great team, made great strides this season, but it would be a privilege to work with him.”

From the archive

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.