When the legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey announced earlier this year in May, that he will leave Red Bull, lots of people started speculating about, where is he planning to go. After 18 years, 6 Contructor’s and 7 Driver’s Championships with Red Bull, it really needed to be something exceptional.

The ‘exceptional’ came right after as he has started to be strongly linked with Ferrari as a ‘cherry on top’ to signing Lewis Hamilton for next year’s season.

Sources indicate that team principal Frederic Vasseur had arranged a budget to hire Newey, who would have worked as a consultant for the Maranello team from the UK instead of moving to Italy. This setup would be similar to how John Barnard worked as Ferrari's chief designer, when he established an office in the UK rather than relocating to Italy, with engineers assigned to his department.

However, Aston Martin already had plans to talk business with Newey as well and according to Autosport, Ferrari wasn’t able or didn’t want to match the offer of Aston Martin, moreover to pay more. Reportedly, the team owned by Lawrence Stroll, has offered Newey 3-year-deal believed to be valued at $100 million with extra bonuses on top based on results.

“Adrian and I have been not only talking for months, but actually for years," Stroll told Bloomberg. 

"Adrian is clearly the most talented and gifted figure in Formula 1, based on his track record and history, in addition to being a hell of a gentleman.

"So I’d be very excited for Adrian to join our team, as I think every other Formula 1 team on the grid would feel exactly the same,” he added.

The official announcement of signing Adrian Newey should come from Aston Martin before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, taking place in less than 2 weeks.