Former Scuderia Driver on How Adrian Newey Joining Ferrari Won’t Help Them Beat Red Bull

After a disappointing end to the 2022 F1 season, Ferrari was expecting to bounce back stronger this year. However, they seem to have fallen off in terms of performance with the staggering large gap between them and Red Bull. The latter is dominating the current season and is expected to easily win both championships.

Former Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat feels that Ferrari needs a lot of changes within their structure if they want to catch the Milton Keynes-based outfit. Kvyat feels that a “technical revolution” is long due in Maranello.

In the Track Limits podcast, Kvyat spoke about how Ferrari should do what Aston Martin and Red Bull did- poach engineers from better teams. Even the management back in Maranello feels that much-needed changes are required to drive the team’s success and return to winning ways. However, according to Former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi, this isn’t a viable solution.

All Ferrari needs is time, says Alesi

When Mattia Binotto took over as Ferrari team principal in 2019, many expected him to be the figure who would spearhead Ferrari’s return to glory. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for him and Fred Vasseur ended up replacing him ahead of the 2023 season.

Vasseur finds his start to life at Ferrari to be very difficult after scoring just 26 points in three races. The pressure is already mounting on him, and rumors of fundamental changes to the technical structure of Ferrari are growing stronger every day. Alesi, however, feels that the Frenchman has to be given more time in order to succeed.

In an interview with Eurosport, Alesi said that does not agree with Kvyat’s suggestion that Ferrari should sign engineers from other teams. He took the example of decorated Red Bull engineer Adrian Newey potentially joining Ferrari.

Alesi feels that it won’t help Ferrari in any way, because it would take a lot of time for Newey to make changes to the car and make them effective.

When Adrian Newey snubbed Ferrari’s $27 million offer

Newey is one of the smartest people to ever work in Formula 1, and has worked for the likes of Williams and McLaren before joining Red Bull in 2006. However, back in 2014, Ferrari approached Newey, offering him a salary of $27 million.

The salary Ferrari offered was almost the double of what he was making at Red Bull back then. Despite that, Newey rejected the offer and decided to stay behind at Red Bull. He made this decision simply because he was happy at Red Bull, and didn’t want to leave for an unknown environment.

“Obviously I nearly joined Ferrari,” said Newey. “More than anything, although I felt happy at Red Bull. And didn’t really want to move teams.”