When Adrian Newey Rejected Ferrari’s Offer to Work With Michael Schumacher – “I Would Have Found It Almost Disrespectful”

Ferrari’s pursuits to land Adrian Newey at Maranello are no secrets. However, each time the Italian giants tried to get him onboard, the Briton rejected the offer. There was a time when he had the opportunity to work with Michael Schumacher. Even then Newey turned down the opportunity. That was despite them offering a much higher pay than his incumbent salary.

In his autobiography, How To Build A Car, Newey recalled the meeting with the Maranello outfit in 1995. After landing in Bologna, he was taken to Jean Todt’s farmhouse. Newey was working with Williams in those days while Schumacher was on course to win his second world championship with Benetton. The aerodynamicist was impressed with the salary offered to him. However, when asked about his opinion on working with Schumacher, the prospect turned out to be a deal breaker.

Despite his championship-winning pedigree, Newey was not a fan of Schumacher. Just the idea of working with the German was ‘disrespectful’ to him. Newey wrote, “To be honest, I had very mixed feelings about that; Schumacher was clearly a fearsome competitor and the best current driver, but Imola and that conversation with Ayrton [Senna], when he was convinced that Michael was using traction control, was still very raw in my mind; I would have found it almost disrespectful to work with Michael so soon afterwards.”

Newey had another big reason not to join Ferrari. The then-Williams engineer was afraid moving to Italy might ruin his marriage with his second wife Marigold. That was despite Marigold’s willingness to move with him to Italy. The paranoia, however, stemmed from the failure of his first marriage, which Newey blamed on his move to America for work.

Where did Adrian Newey head to post Williams?

Differences began to develop between Adrian Newey and the rest of the Williams management in 1995. Despite that, he signed an extension for another three years to stay with the team.

This time around, he had a fool-proof clause added to the contract – to be consulted on matters involving serious business, including decisions on drivers. Williams management violated that clause twice by not consulting Newey while hiring Heinz-Harald Frentzen and later dropping Damon Hill.

The growing distrust led to Newey parting ways with the team at the end of 1996 and serving a gardening leave before joining McLaren in 1997. Despite joining the new team, the aerodynamicist admitted he was rooting for Jacques Villeneuve to win the championship in the season finale at the Jerez circuit. One of the reasons behind it was his influence on the 1997 Williams car that Villeneuve was driving.

The other reason was Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher being the other title contender. In the autobiography, Newey disclosed the general mood in the pit lane. Most teams wanted Williams to win because of their dislike for Ferrari. Wonder if Newey’s disdain for the red team still remains to this day.