Adrian Newey to Ferrari: When Lewis Hamilton Drove a Adrian Newey-Designed Car

Ever since Lewis Hamilton made his move to Ferrari in 2025 public, there have been rumors of some leading figures joining him at the Maranello-based outfit. One of them is Adrian Newey, who has never worked with Hamilton before. However, there was a brief crossover between the two back in 2004, when Hamilton drove a car designed by the man billed as F1’s ‘aero-god’.

In 2004, Hamilton was part of McLaren’s young driver’s academy. It was also Adrian Newey’s penultimate year for the Woking-based squad before he moved to Red Bull. While they never directly worked together, Hamilton did drive the car designed by Newey – in a test.

Lewis Hamilton’s first F1 test back in December of 2004. Lewis Hamilton was signed to McLaren young driver programme in 1998.Towards the end of 2004 Williams announced that they’ve been close to signing Lewis but didn’t because BMW, their engine supplier, wouldn’t fund him. He drove MP4-19 that day.
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In December of 2004, he took behind the wheel of the MP4-19, as revealed in a post on Reddit. Newey, the technical director of McLaren was one of the main brains behind the car that Hamilton drove that evening. The MP4-19 was driven by David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen in 2004, as McLaren finished fifth in the constructors’ championship.

It would take some time before Hamilton would finally make his long-awaited F1 debut. In 2007, three years after driving the Newey-designed challenger, he joined Fernando Alonso at McLaren. By then, Newey had already moved to Red Bull and was in the process of creating history with the Milton-Keynes-based outfit.

Will Adrian Newey move to Ferrari and join Lewis Hamilton?

Adrian Newey, despite being one of F1’s best-ever engineers, has not worked with Hamilton (arguably F1’s best driver of all time) or Ferrari (F1’s most successful team of all time). Now that Hamilton is moving to Ferrari in 2025, Newey has an opportunity to check both things off his list.

As of now, it is not clear whether Newey will join Ferrari or not. However, the latest rumors suggest that he will stay put at Red Bull. This comes even though internal politics at Red Bull are tarnishing the team’s image.

Adrian Newey at Ferrari?
That would mark the rebirth of competition in F1.

— Johnnie Ns. (@jny23ug) March 9, 2024

The never-ending Christian Horner saga isn’t doing anyone any favors. Figures like Max Verstappen and Newey are reportedly unhappy with the negative spotlight on the team. If Newey, who has played a huge role in Red Bull’s dominance, decides to leave, it will be a huge loss for them. For Ferrari and Hamilton, however, it will be a huge gain.