Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey has revealed concerns over the competitiveness of Renault almost led him to accept a Ferrari offer in 2014.
The Briton, who has designed championship winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, has long been a target of the Scuderia with aerodynamics often considered their main weakness.
In fact, Newey claimed he had been approached on three separate occasions to join the Maranello outfit with their most recent the most tempting.
“I was in a bit of a difficult position,” he told Sky Sports. “I didn’t want to walk out of Red Bull because it feels like home and I’d been heavily involved from the start with [team principal] Christian [Horner].”
However: “It became evident that the Renault engine was a long way behind the Mercedes in particular and to some extent the Ferrari – with no obvious end in sight,” Adrian admitted.
“Renault didn’t seem to be willing to put the funding in to really sort the problem out, which was the depressing and worrying bit.”
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Newey claimed he endured “sleepless nights” pondering his future, as he weighed up his relationship with Red Bull against the possibility of competing “with one hand tied behind our back”.
“Ferrari came up with an incredible offer, very attractive,” he said. “In the end, it would have felt wrong to walk out on Red Bull.”