MIAMI — Williams has thrown it’s hat into the ring as a left-field contender for Adrian Newey’s services.
F1 design legend Newey will leave Red Bull in early 2025, it was confirmed on Wednesday.
A link-up with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari appears to be the favoured move, although ESPN sources have confirmed Aston Martin has also made an offer.
Newey oversaw the dominant Williams cars of the early to mid 1990s, winning the first F1 championships of his storied career, and current team boss James Vowles said he’s interested in bringing him back.
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“He is an icon of our sport. There is no doubt about it,” Vowles told Autosport. “Every team he’s been to since Williams has been championship material. And that’s not a coincidence, that is just simply the effect he has on the sport.
“It would be remiss of me to not be talking to him. It is as simple as that.”
At Williams, Newey-built cars won with Nigel Mansell in 1992 and Damon Hill in 1996. Newey then moved to McLaren, where his cars won titles in 1998 and 1999.
His move to Red Bull in 2006 helped turn the small Austrian team into one of F1’s leading teams, with four titles at the start of the 2010s and a handful of championships over the last three years.
While Red Bull has risen up the order over the past decade and a half, in the same time Williams has slipped to the back end of the field and is a shadow of its former self. Vowles wants to turn the British squad into a competitive outfit again and said the success of that will not just rest on whether it can sign Newey.
“I think we as Williams have a huge amount of work to do,” he said. “Adrian or not, our task is enormous — and Adrian wouldn’t make it easier, but that’s the whole point.
“I think we also have to be sensible about it. Our conversations with him have been very light. But even so, are we in discussions? Yes. Very light discussions. “But to answer your question, would it be a dream team? Yes.”
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