Hamilton admits it would be a ‘privilege’ to work with ‘amazing’ Newey at Ferrari in 2025

Lewis Hamilton has given his reaction to Adrian Newey’s impending departure from Red Bull, saying he would “very much” like to see the legendary Formula 1 designer join him at Ferrari next year.

It was announced earlier this week that Newey, who has been a key part of Red Bull’s design team for almost two decades, will leave the Milton Keynes operation in the first quarter of 2025 in order to “seek new challenges”.

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Given his incredible track record in the sport – having designed cars that have won 12 constructors’ titles and 13 drivers’ titles across stints with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull – Newey is unsurprisingly being linked with several rival teams.

One of those teams is Ferrari, who Hamilton will link up with in 2025 after himself deciding to leave Mercedes – and the seven-time world champion got straight to the point when asked about the potential for Newey to make the same move.

Initially smiling that he would “very much” like Newey to join him at Maranello, Hamilton continued: “I mean, Adrian’s known for… he’s got such a great history, track record, and has obviously just done an amazing job through his career, in engaging with teams and the knowledge he has.

“I think he would be an amazing addition. I think they’ve [Ferrari] already got a great team, they’re already making huge progress, strides forwards – their car’s quicker this year. But yeah, it would be a privilege to work with him.”

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Asked if Newey had been on his “wish list” for Ferrari during his own discussions with the Scuderia over the winter, Hamilton added that while “this is all private conversation stuff… if I was to do a list of people that I would love to work with, he would absolutely be at the top of it.”

Pushed on what he feels the chances are of Newey ultimately deciding to move to Ferrari after assessing his options, Hamilton added: “I don’t know, we’ll see.”

Hamilton, who made his F1 debut with McLaren in 2007, shortly after Newey had left the team, was then asked about how much the competitive landscape could change in F1 going forward, given Red Bull’s recent dominance – even if the 65-year-old decides to step away from the sport.

“From my perspective, when I joined McLaren, I think it was an evolution of his car... I think I got there just after he left,” he said. “That car had evolved from a concept that he had worked on, so I felt privileged that I’d had the chance to touch something that he’d worked on.

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“Racing against the team that he’s been so heavily a part of through the years has been a massive challenge, but I think we just always need to remember that there’s a lot of people in the background, and there’s not one key person… it’s not one person, it’s a whole team of people who do the job.

“You can imagine of all the amazing experience that he brings to the team, the people that he works with will continue to do an amazing job, and I don’t anticipate Red Bull not continuing to build great cars moving forwards. But any team would be fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him.”