'The real reason why Newey snubbed chance to work with Hamilton and Leclerc'

Ferrari has not met the standards it set for itself in 2025. Having finished just 14 points off the eventual Constructors' champions McLaren 2025 was supposed to be a titanic title battle between the long-time rivals.

However, their efforts so far have become diluted as they were unable to string along their 2024 successes with the current campaign. They currently sit miles off the Woking-based team in the Constructors' and in the Drivers' championship Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are not doing much better.

According to a report by FUnoAnalisiTecnica, the acclaimed designer Adrian Newey was very much fascinated by the possibility of working with Hamilton and Leclerc. Nevertheless the appeal was not as attractive as to make the F1 designer guru want to be put through his paces.

According to the Italian website there are two main reasons for Newey turning his back on the Maranello-based squad. It is known that the Scuderia is very much rooted in its traditionalistic way of going about their management of racing operations, and with that they were less than willing to relinquish the team's sporting control, something Newey alledgedly requested.

The second reason, according to the Italian outlet, is the one current team principal Vasseur is facing. Ferrari is more than a car manufacturer or an F1 team, but it's more an emblem for Italy and its people, and carries with it much passion, which when things go well spurs the team on, but when things go south, it is the total opposite.

Rumours start swirling of shocking departures, the media ramps up the pressure and patience is not precisely something that's associated with the expectations attatched to the Ferrari F1 team. It is that boiling hot pressure Newey was keen to avoid.

Thus, the designer chose to bind his fate to Aston Martin as Managing Technical Director for a reported sum of 30 million pounds per year. In 2026 the British designer will debut his first British racing green coloured car in association with Honda.