Amid numerous rumors pointing to it, Zak Brown has come out to confirm that McLaren won’t be hiring Adrian Newey, the most successful Formula One engineer of all time. The team’s CEO said that he is content with the current squad at Woking, England.

After Newey announced his end-of-year exit from Red Bull in May, several rival F1 teams have been reported to have readied themselves to secure his services. Ferrari and Aston Martin have allegedly been the front-runners in the race for his signature, but reports also named McLaren.

Snubbing such rumors, Brown, who is a long-time confidant of Red Bull boss Christian Horner, has clarified that McLaren is not pursuing Newey. He stated that the aerodynamicist is a good friend of his, but having him at Woking is not the team’s priority at the moment.

“We’re not going to sign Adrian,” Zak Brown said. “I’m very happy with the team. Adrian is a great friend, huge talent, resume (C.V.) second to none. But with what we have in place here, I couldn’t be happier.””We can get the job done. I’m happy with the race team we have and we’re going to try to win the World Championship with the team sitting here today,” he added.

McLaren made a brilliant resurgence coming into 2024 and they are now within touching distance of Red Bull on the Constructors’ Championship table. This has apparently been possible with their existing team of engineers and experts.

Aston Martin closing in on signing Adrian Newey

According to the latest developments, Aston Martin is set to secure Adrian Newey’s services. It is reported that the British team will announce his signing in September this year.

Adrian Newey of Red Bull at the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain – Getty Images

This has come amid Newey’s reported disinterest in moving from Britain to Italy and signing for Ferrari, and McLaren’s withdrawal. Mercedes, too, is content with James Allison and has made decent ground in the last few races.

This leaves Aston Martin as the strongest and perhaps only contender to land the most successful F1 engineer. The British team’s principal, Mike Krack, may have dropped a subtle hint about it when he said:

“We’ve announced several new members of the senior management team over the last few months, and each time someone new arrives, I’m asked the question, ‘Is that the last piece in the puzzle?’ It isn’t. It never is. We’ll continue to look at recruitment because perhaps there’s somebody else out there that’s going to make us better.”

Newey decided to leave Red Bull after working with them for nearly two decades.