Adrian Newey has admitted to feeling honoured to hearing Lewis Hamilton say he would like to work with the Red Bull chief as he prepares to leave the Milton Keynes-based team next year.
The 65-year-old has spent almost two decades with Red Bull and has been credited as the secret behind their success in F1.
Newey is regarded by many as the greatest car designer in the sport's history and he's now looking for a new challenge after announcing plans to leave Red Bull in early 2025.
His imminent departure from Red Bull led to questions about where his next move could be with Ferrari strongly linked with trying to lure him to the team.
Hamilton made it clear he would love to work with Newey at Ferrari while speaking at the Miami Grand Prix.
Adrian Newey was happy to hear Lewis Hamilton's comments
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“If I was to do a list of people I would love to work with, he would absolutely be at the top of it,” he said.
“Adrian has such a great history, track record he has done an amazing job through his career, engaging with teams, the knowledge that he has.
“It would be a privilege to work with him.”
When asked whether it felt good to hear such words from the seven-time world champion, Newey said: “It does, I have to admit.
“The Miami Grand Prix was strange because I was there, I was there [with Red Bull] in a strategy function, hence being on the pit wall, but I wasn’t involved in any of the engineering decisions, or in any of the engineering meetings, I was just being wheeled around for press basically.
“It’s not what gets me up [in the morning]. I never really think about it… I never thought it would be big news, to be perfectly honest, I never really thought about it.
"For it to be in all the flipping papers and on the telly and stuff was almost a bit of a shock.”
Newey was speaking in an interview with Eddie Jordan for Oyster Yachts when he was asked about what he will do next.
He replied: “It’s a popular question at the moment.
“I think the easiest way to answer that is if you’d asked me 15 years ago, at the age of 65, would I seriously be considering changing teams, going somewhere else, and doing another four, five years or whatever, I’d have said, ‘You’re absolutely mad’.
“I think a few things happened at once. My dad, who was a vet, he was a huge car enthusiast, he had a little workshop with a lathe, a milling machine and stuff.
Adrian Newey will leave Red Bull next year
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"He used to tinker around and always modify his cars and play with them. I guess that’s obviously where things rubbed off on me.
“Anyway, he wanted to retire when he was 60. He kind of semi-retired at 62, moved up with my mum to Yorkshire, then did locums until he was 65, then he was fully retired.
"He kind of… if I’m honest, it’s slightly emotional to say it, but he kind of lost his way a bit in his retirement.”
He added: “It was kind of a combination of that, and then two of the people I respect the most, Bernie [Ecclestone] and Roger Penske, I asked them both, ‘What’s your secret?’.
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Lewis Hamilton will join Ferrari next year
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“They’ve kept going and going, and for their age they’re phenomenally agile, mentally agile and physically agile. They both said that old thing that the brain is like a muscle, it needs exercise, so you need to keep doing that.
“Also, honestly, I’ve wanted to work in motor racing, as a designer, since I was the age of eight or 10, and I’ve been lucky enough to fulfil that ambition, to have got that first job, and been in motor racing ever since.
“Every day has just been a bonus really, I love what I do, so at some point I guess I’ll have a bit of a holiday and as Forrest Gump said at the end of his long run, ‘I feel a little bit tired at the moment’, but at some point I’ll probably go again.
