Adrian Newey shared his regret over not getting to work with Lewis Hamilton when the chance came knocking. There was a time when Hamilton and Newey came close to working with each other. Now, after 11 years of that ordeal, the Red Bull mastermind revealed his regret in a recent episode of the Beyond the Grid podcast.
The story goes back to 2012 when Hamilton wanted a switch from McLaren to Red Bull. This was after the Austrian team made a giant leap forward with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber and was the best team on the grid.
This was the time when the British driver was also struggling with McLaren who went from a superior to a mediocre team. To speak with Newey about the switch, the seven-time world champion even went to the engineer’s house. However, the Red Bull man couldn’t be of any help, and Hamilton ended up staying at McLaren for another season, before switching to Mercedes.
Adrian Newey shared his regret about not working with Hamilton
In the recent episode of F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Newey opened up on multiple topics including how he didn’t choose to go for Mercedes’ sidepod in 2022, to how he snubbed Ferrari, and many more. In doing so, he also mentioned his regret in not working with Hamilton.
Talking about this, the Red Bull mastermind said on Beyond the Grid podcast, “But just as, for instance, working with Fernando and Lewis would have been fabulous. But it never happened. It’s just circumstance sometimes, that’s the way it is.”
Eventually, the Milton-Keynes-based team decided to stick to their driver pairing of Vettel and Webber and Hamilton moved to Mercedes in 2013. Now, coming in 2023, both Newey and Hamilton should be happy about their achievement.
How did Lewis Hamilton and Newey achieve success later on?
After the Red Bull deal didn’t work for Lewis Hamilton, he moved to Mercedes in 2013. Even though the first year wasn’t a massive success, from 2014 onwards, it was a whole different story. The seven-time world champion won six titles with the Silver Arrows from then till 2020.
As for Adrian Newey, the Red Bull engineer won the title for his team in 2013 and snatched the championship back from Mercedes in 2022. In the recently concluded race in Japan, Red Bull also defended their championship.
All in all, Newey and Red Bull would like to stay dominant this way for the next few years. As per experts, the Austrian team could dominate F1 till 2025. Therefore, Hamilton and Mercedes need a lot of work to do to get back to winning ways.
