NEW ADRIAN NEWEY DESTINATION SUGGESTED AMID ‘BIG-MONEY’ ASTON MARTIN OFFER

With the F1 future of Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey continuing to be a hot topic for debate, a return to his former team has been teased.

Said tease comes from 1996 World Champion Damon Hill, who rather than Aston Martin, pondered whether McLaren may in fact be the project which can catch Newey’s eye.

Could Adrian Newey reunite with McLaren?

Despite signing a new Red Bull contract last year, Newey has been linked recently with a move to the ambitious Aston Martin team, following a report that billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll had tabled a ‘big-money’ offer to lure him away from the dominant Red Bull team.

Before designing title-winning machinery for Red Bull, Newey did the same with McLaren and Williams prior to that, Williams being the team with which Hill won his title in 1996.

And Hill pondered whether McLaren, rather than Aston Martin, could come into Newey’s thinking when he looks to his F1 future, McLaren a team which has enjoyed a remarkable surge in performance over the last year.

“I just wonder what would happen if Adrian was looking around and was thinking of McLaren as a team to go to,” Hill pondered on Sky F1.

“They’ve already shown that they’re going in the right direction. They’re definitely a team on the make.”

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After returning to regular podium-scoring ways in 2023, McLaren has continued that momentum in F1 2024, where they so far have found themselves battling Ferrari to be recognised as ‘best of the rest’ behind Red Bull.

However, Hill’s fellow Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok believes the true challenge for McLaren this season is to claim a Grand Prix win, something they have not done since Italy 2021.

Asked if he believes McLaren can take the fight to Ferrari across the F1 2024 campaign, Chandhok replied: “Yeah, I think so. They are absolutely contenders to be second behind Red Bull and best of the rest.

“I think the bigger thing is, can they get that elusive first win this year? That I think is a bigger question, because on the two occasions in the recent past where Red Bull have faltered, Melbourne and Singapore, it wasn’t McLaren that picked up the pieces, it was Ferrari. I think that’s the bit that they’re missing.”

Heading into the Miami Grand Prix, McLaren sit P3 in the Constructors’ Championship, 55 points behind Ferrari.

Read next: Helmut Marko reveals F1 2024 rival ‘definitely’ on Red Bull radar after latest strong performance

2024-04-24T05:20:00Z dg43tfdfdgfd