Newey reveals almost signing for major F1 rival 'three times'

Red Bull Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey has revealed that he was close to leaving the reigning World Champions several times for Ferrari.

Newey has been central to Red Bull's success in Formula 1, which includes this year's campaign that saw the team win 20 out of the 21 races staged.

The Briton is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 car designers of all time, building seven championship-winning cars at Red Bull.

Prior to his stint at the Milton Keynes-based outfit, Newey enjoyed success with Williams and McLaren.

However he has not yet worked with Ferrari during his career, one of F1's most iconic and historic teams.

Speaking on the Formula for Success podcast, Newey revealed that he has been close to signing with the Italian squad on several occasions.

“Ferrari is this magic brand that I suppose in all honesty, probably everybody in motor racing is always fascinated by and tempted to join if there’s the opportunity,” he said.

“And I’ve been approached and come close three times now. One of those in IndyCar way back.”

“It’s an amazing brand. It has had all this mystique about it,” he said. “It’s effectively the Italian national team, with all the pros and cons that come with that.

“And the cons are that if you don’t do a great job, you’re absolutely berated and torn apart. Of course, if you do a good job, you’re a national hero. So that brings all its own pressures.

“I have to try to take the passion, that side, out of it and approach it from an engineering side and the teams I’ve worked for I’ve hugely enjoyed.”

'Like walking out on your family'

Newey joined Red Bull in 2005 when the energy drink brand first joined the grid as a manufacturer.

Having enjoyed a partnership of almost two decades with Red Bull, Newey admitted that it would be extremely difficult to walk away from the project.

“Red Bull, which is largely in part to your advice David [Coulthard, co-host of the Formula for Success podcast], because that’s a team I’ve been at, more or less from the start,” he said.

“It’s a team that I’ve been very centrally involved in developing the engineering side of the team, so it’s a team I feel comfortable with. We all know how we work.

“To change now, I’m not saying I would never ever change, you should never say that, but it would be like walking out on your family. Because that’s what it’s become.”