Lewis Hamilton has succinctly summed up his opinion on Adrian Newey, the Red Bull chief engineer, in just five words amid rumours about his future.
The 65-year-old is reportedly considering leaving after nearly two decades due to an ongoing power struggle at Red Bull, with Ferrari, Hamilton's next team, being one of the favourites to secure the chief technology officer. Newey is considered one of Formula One's top engineering minds by many within the paddock, including Hamilton. "He doesn't build bad cars" was the Mercedes driver's concise assessment of Newey's skills, suggesting that he would be open to collaborating with the Red Bull genius at Ferrari.
Ferrari have been rejected by Newey three times in the past, most recently in 2014, but he has expressed a desire to work with Hamilton before and could fulfil his ambition with the Italian team after Hamilton praised the engineer. "They've (Red Bull) got the aero-balance right, great ride quality, no problems with bumps," he said at the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix. "They're an amazing team and have done a phenomenal job. Newey doesn't generally build bad cars. My first championship car (in 2007) was an evolution of his car.
"He did a thesis (at the University of Southampton) on ground-effect cars. It's no surprise, he's one of the only ones who draws these cars by hand."
The thought of Newey leaving would have been unimaginable when he signed a new contract until the end of 2025 last year. However, the upheaval surrounding Red Bull and team principal Christian Horner has had such a negative impact that it's led to an internal power struggle, causing Newey to rethink his future.
Hamilton, on the other hand, might be less surprised than most at the idea of Newey being up for grabs by Red Bull's competitors. Having shocked the F1 world himself by switching from Mercedes to Ferrari, Hamilton hinted at an "interesting" few months ahead behind the scenes.
"My move has shown that anything's possible and it's going to be a really interesting next six months or so," he commented last month. "In terms of Adrian, having worked within the team (Red Bull), I know obviously Adrian gets all the praise for everybody's work.
"I know he's a huge part of it, of course, but I know there are so many engineers in the background that are a huge part of developing the team and the car that they have and it's not down to one person. It's not my decision (for him to move to Ferrari) But I'm competing against him this year at the moment, so I can't really talk about next year just yet."
