Adrian Newey responds to Christian Horner criticism and addresses relationship

Adrian Newey has hit back in response to criticism from former Red Bull Formula 1 colleague and friend Christian Horner. 

In his new autobiography, Drive, which was released on 22 October, Horner made a series of cutting allegations about Newey, who led the technical department at Red Bull during their 20-year stint at the Milton Keynes squad. 

As well as being critical of Newey’s management style, Horner accused the 67-year-old of wanting to abandon ship at the first sign of adversity in 2014 and claimed that Newey’s move to Aston Martin left him blindsided.

Newey was asked about Horner’s remarks ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, where he appeared in the team representatives’ press conference on Friday. 

“You are quite right in saying that no, I haven't read any of it yet,” Aston Martin team principal and managing technical partner Newey stated. 

“I think 2014, then as a chassis designer, if the PU manufacturer has a bad year, that happens and you accept it. 

“If the PU manufacturer has a bad year and doesn't appear to have any intention of trying to address the problem, that's altogether a different matter, and that's quite bleak at that point. 

“And that's the situation that, unfortunately, we faced in 2014. As it turned out, that situation didn't really change with that supplier until we changed to Honda in 2019. So, you can imagine my pain and frustration at that. 

“I don't think Christian fully understood that, perhaps. But I was in conversation [with him]. The rest of it, I really can't comment. But Christian and I remain friends. As many of you know, I am godfather to his daughter, Olivia, so yeah.” 

Horner also recently said he could see history repeating itself for Newey at Aston Martin as he drew comparisons to Red Bull’s early struggles in the mid-to-late 2000s. 

“I think there are actually a lot of parallels between when I started at Red Bull and when I started at Aston Martin,” Newey agreed. 

“Both teams that through their history had had quite a lot of turmoil with changes of owners, changes of senior managers, etc. And it's then really trying to get everybody working together, try to break down the silos, improve the culture. And that's been exactly the same again.”