Adrian Newey’s decision to leave Red Bull has kickstarted rumors of several teams being interested in signing the Briton. While Ferrari is still the outfit he is most strongly linked with, Mercedes has now entered the mix.
Newey, however, isn’t interested in signing with Mercedes. Per Motorsport, the 65-year-old is not a fan of Mercedes’ ground-effect concept and rectifying it or building it from scratch isn’t something he is looking forward to.
Newey doesn’t know how long it will take for him to set things right at the Brackley-based team. Their ‘revolutionary’ zero-pod concept made its debut in the W13 with the regulation changes of 2022. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for the Silver Arrows who entered a slump because of the design of their car.
It took the team a lot of time to accept that the zero-pod concept wasn’t working. But even after getting rid of it in 2023, they couldn’t get better and things began taking a turn for the worse. The damage was done because aerodynamics became Mercedes’ biggest weakness, something the best minds on the team couldn’t help them improve on.
Newey is currently the Chief Technical Officer of Red Bull, the sport’s most dominant team. Joining Mercedes, an outfit showing no immediate signs of progress would be a step down from his point of view, which is why he is reportedly rejecting the German outfit’s offer.
Like Adrian Newey, Toto Wolff has also given up hope of a Mercedes F1 revival
Mercedes’ biggest problem at the moment is their inability to find where they are going wrong. Engineers at their Brackley-base are working tirelessly to unlock performance in vain, and Red Bull’s chief advisor Helmut Marko pointed this out recently.
Mercedes’ rivals Aston Martin and McLaren have shown that, the right upgrade package can work wonders. It can send a team languishing in the midfield to the front and fight for podiums. Mercedes’ Team Principal Toto Wolff, however, insists that Mercedes are not in a position to replicate the same.
McLaren started the 2023 season on a disastrous note. The Woking-based outfit had one of the slowest cars on the grid, but with upgrades brought in over the next few months, they ended the year giving Red Bull a run for their money.
Wolff doesn’t expect a similar revival for his team. He has full faith in his drivers but to get the best possible results, they need a car capable enough to suit their needs. As of now, Mercedes don’t have that.
