“Probably Max Verstappen would’ve gone with him”: Former Ferrari boss laments team’s ‘stupid’ decision to not sign Adrian Newey

Ferrari had a great chance of signing both Max Verstappen and Adrian Newey, as per F1 journalist Peter Windsor, who highlighted the team's "stupid" decision made almost a decade back.

Red Bull is currently on their second stint of domination in F1 and the two big reasons are the car and Max Versatppen's driving skillset. The man behind the car, Adrian Newey, is known for his excellent implementation of aerodynamic knowledge. He produces championship-winning cars when paired with the right engine and driver.

Ferrari, who haven't won a single world championship in the past 15 years, apparently had an incredible chance of signing Newey. This was earlier confirmed by RBR's team principal Christian Horner on the Eff Won podcast.

"Adrian came very close to leaving, he was within about half-an-hour signing [for Ferrari]."

While Ferrari did not sign him, Max Verstappen later made it to Red Bull and it's remarkable what he is achieving with the team.

Peter Windsor, speaking in his recent YouTube video, stated that the Scuderia should have signed Newey back in the day and they would have won multiple championships by now.

"If only Ferrari had the brains to hire Adrian, eight years ago, even seven years or six years ago, pay him two billion or whatever it was, they would have got all their money back and more because they would’ve won four or five World Championships by now.

"Ferrari not doing that is actually more stupid, I think, then how Adrian makes everybody else look at the moment in terms of stupidity if you like," he added. "Because if he’d gone to Ferrari, absolutely no doubt that Ferrari would have been winning more championships."

He further stated that Max Verstappen would have gone to Ferrari as well which would have been a jackpot for the team.

"Probably Max would’ve gone with him."

Ferrari looked strong in the 2022 season to win the world championship, but in the end, it was Verstappen who emerged victorious with Red Bull.

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Max Verstappen feels Red Bull has room for improvement despite a dominating season

Red Bull won all but one of the races in the 2023 season. While this, in itself, is an extremely tough fate to achieve, Max Verstappen feels there is room for improvement in Red Bull.

"There are always things that we can do better, we know that," Indian news website The Print quoted him as saying.

"Of course, the car has been very, very dominant but we’ve also seen a few things that we can do better and that’s what we are, of course, working on for next year."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner had earlier stated that there is room for improvement in the car, but it can be rather hard for the team to achieve this rate of success.

Competitors like Ferrari came close to competing with the car that was dominating at the start of the season. It was Carlos Sainz who became the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race.

This proves that there is a good chance for the 2024 season to be much more competitive for other teams.