Tuesday 8th November 2005

Red Bull announced designer and aerodynamics expert Adrian Newey would be joining the team as chief technical officer, luring him away from the McLaren team Ron Dennis had persuaded him to join in 1996. Ironically, the very thing that had been Dennis’ weapon in 1996 – money – was his undoing with Newey reportedly demanding a salary hike from $6 million to $10 million to stay. “It’s a massive recruitment for us,” Christian Horner, Red Bull’s sporting director, said. “Given the choice of Adrian or Michael Schumacher, I’d go for Adrian every time. It’s of that kind of magnitude. I think that it sends out exactly the right message in that we are totally serious about what we want to do and what we want to achieve.” In 2001 Newey agreed to join the Jaguar team as technical director only to reverse his decision days later after a series of highly-charged meetings with Dennis.