Mercedes didn’t show Adrian Newey “enough respect” while the Williams’ task was “just too much”, that’s what Craig Slater and Ted Kravitz suggest led to those talks breaking down.
Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll pulled off the biggest coup of his F1 tenure so far when he announced on Tuesday that Aston Martin had beaten their rivals to Newey’s signature.
Just about every team up and down the pit lane wanted Adrian Newey…
Stroll confirmed that Newey would join the team in March next season, taking on the newly-created Managing Technical Partner role in a long-term deal. He also becomes a shareholder of the team.
That officially put an end to speculation he could be off to Ferrari, who the Briton admits was “for sure one of the considerations“, or even Mercedes or Williams.
Newey, whose cars have won 25 championship titles with the potential for another two with Red Bull this season, was linked to just about every team up and down the pit lane with Ferrari leading the initial running before Mercedes, McLaren, Williams and Alpine also reportedly entered the mix.
But according to Sky Sports’ Craig Slater, Mercedes weren’t in the running for very long.
“They didn’t show him enough respect contractually. Maybe the offer wasn’t big enough,” he said.
“And it’s adding to a period of success. There’s more to achieve here [Aston Martin] certainly than Mercedes in the recent past.”
More on Adrian Newey’s move to Aston Martin
And yet, ironically, “too much” at Williams according to Ted Kravitz.
Williams, who Newey won titles with in the 1990s, admitted they had approached the design guru after it was announced that he would leave Red Bull.
Williams team principal James Vowles revealed their talks, saying: “It would be remiss of me to not be talking to him. It is as simple as that.
“I’ve known Adrian for a while anyway, and I spoke to him Friday. I’m sure we’ll be talking again, very shortly as well.”
Going on to say it would be a “dream team” given Newey’s past success with Williams, Kravitz reckons Williams’ fall from grace meant it was just too big of a project for the 65-year-old to tackle.
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