“Each crew has a succession plan,” insists Ford Efficiency Motorsports Director, Mark Rushbrook in response to Adrian Newey’s departure.
Affirmation that Adrian Newey is leaving Purple Bull at season finish has led to 2 major speaking factors, the primary being the place he may be heading and the second being how his leaving will have an effect on the Austrian crew.
By way of the second, many are gleefully rubbing their arms collectively within the hope that dropping the design guru will put the “power drink producer” in its “rightful place”.
Whereas Zak Brown warns that Newey would be the first of many dominos to fall in Milton Keynes, the likes of Christian Horner, Helmut Marko and Max Verstappen insist ‘not so’.
Additionally assured that Purple Bull will survive is Ford which insists that its plan to accomplice with the Austrian crew’s powertrains division from 2026 stay unchanged.
“We’ve got large respect for Adrian when it comes to his profession and all of the issues that he has accomplished for a lot of completely different groups in F1, particularly the final 19 years at Purple Bull,” Ford Efficiency Motorsports Director, Mark Rushbrook instructed Autosport. “We’ve got nothing however admiration and respect for him, and we want him one of the best for no matter he’ll do sooner or later.
“Our focus although absolutely stays on the facility unit programme for 2026,” he insisted. “That is unchanged after this information and that’s nonetheless going forward full throttle.”
With Horner claiming that Newey first raised doubts about his future with the crew in 2014, Rushbrook insists that all through negotiations Ford was stored absolutely knowledgeable of developments, although the American producer was not finest happy by the shortage of transparency on the crew while investigating Horner for inappropriate behaviour.
“Continuity was within the very first discussions that I had with Christian,” stated Rushbrook. “So, my query to him was: ‘How is Purple Bull going to proceed to achieve success in 2026 with all-new rules?’
“Like every good firm or any good racing crew, you all the time have a succession plan, and you’re all the time coaching and growing folks inside the organisation. That’s no completely different on this case. I’m not being disrespectful to Adrian in any respect as a result of he’s improbable, however each crew has a succession plan.”
Certainly, as Ford prepares to return to F1 for the primary time since its ill-fated endeavours with Jaguar twenty years in the past, Rushbrook is adamant that in Purple Bull the American big has the right accomplice.
“To do something nice in motorsport, we as Ford discover one of the best groups to accomplice with. We consider that we now have discovered one of the best crew in System 1,” he stated. “It’s all about cooperation, understanding the state of affairs and being dedicated to doing what it takes to achieve success. That’s persevering with with each events.”
