Over the last two years, Red Bull has been the most dominant team in Formula 1. However, their championship-winning secrets could now be under threat, with prominent members of the team set to join rivals, Ferrari.
Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics Enrico Balbo will join the Maranell0-based outfit from 2024 onwards along with another senior member. This is according to Motorsport, who also claim that the second member who will join Ferrari, is an even more integral part of Red Bull’s recent success.
🚨 | Red Bull’s Head of Aerodynamics Enrico Balbo is set to join Ferrari in 2024
Another member from Red Bull will join Ferrari and he is said to be even more important and has made the difference at the team recently and he knows a lot about the Red Bull car concept ‼️ pic.twitter.com/KABTIklSnX
— RBR Daily (@RedBullUpdates) April 29, 2023
Balbo’s name, meanwhile is confirmed and he will join Ferrari next year. The Italian engineer will bring a wealth of experience to Ferrari, who are in need of a massive technical overhaul if they are to catch Red Bull. Balbo has previously worked for Williams and Mercedes in F1 before joining Red Bull in 2018.
Will Adrian Newey leave Red Bull to join Ferrari?
Talks about Adrian Newey joining Ferrari have often come up throughout the course of the Briton’s illustrious career. When reports of a technical leader- who is more influential than Balbo- leaving Red Bull came up, most people assumed that it was Newey.
Newey is one of the smartest minds to have ever worked in F1, and despite his relatively old age, is showing no desire of leaving the sport. The 64-year-old has been a part of Red Bull’s F1 team since 2006 and will continue to serve the Milton-Keynes-based outfit in the coming years.
Despite rumors, the second (more influential) engineer who will leave Red Bull to join Ferrari, is not Adrian Newey. However, Motorsport points out that this person has a “great understanding of the Red Bull car”, and has made a “huge difference at the team recently”.
When Newey nearly joined Ferrari
In the past Newey revealed an instance where Ferrari offered him a salary of $27 million which je rejected. This was more than twice of what he was earning at Red Bull when the offer came in 2014.
Still, Newey decided to stay back, only because of the familiarity surrounding the place. He had been with the team since 2006, and oversaw their developmental years, helping them become the most dominant team on the grid.
Team principal Christian Horner didn’t reveal how long Newey will actually stay, but expects him to be around at least for the foreseeable future.
