Red Bull have confirmed long-serving car designer Adrian Newey will leave the team.
Last week, Newey told colleagues of his desire to leave the Formula 1 champions. But the team had not been officially informed of his intentions and a spokesperson told Mirror Sport that he is contracted until the end of 2025.
However, it seems the team's stance on Newey's future has softened. Red Bull have now agreed to allow their chief technical officer, who joined the team in 2006, to leave.
Newey is set to depart "in the first quarter of 2025", the team confirmed. He is to take a step back from his F1 duties, but will continue to work on Red Bull's RB17 Hypercar project "until its completion".
Newey said: "Ever since I was a young boy, I wanted to be a designer of fast cars. My dream was to be an engineer in Formula 1, and I've been lucky enough to make that dream a reality. For almost two decades it has been my great honour to have played a key role in Red Bull Racing's progress from upstart newcomer to multiple title-winning team.
"However, I feel now is an opportune moment to hand that baton over to others and to seek new challenges for myself. In the interim, the final stages of development of RB17 are upon us, so for the remainder of my time with the team my focus will lie there.
"I would like to thank the many amazing people I have worked with at Red Bull in our journey over the last 18 years for their talent, dedication and hard work. It has been a real privilege, and I am confident that the engineering team are well prepared for the work going into the final evolution of the car under the four-year period of this regulation set."
Team principal Christian Horner added: "All of our greatest moments from the past 20 years have come with Adrian's hand on the technical tiller. His vision and brilliance have helped us to 13 titles in 20 seasons.
"His exceptional ability to conceptualise beyond F1 and bring wider inspiration to bear on the design of grand prix cars, his remarkable talent for embracing change and finding the most rewarding areas of the rules to focus on, and his relentless will to win have helped Red Bull Racing to become a greater force than I think even the late Dietrich Mateschitz might have imagined.]
"More than that, the past 19 years with Adrian have been enormous fun. For me, when Adrian joined Red Bull, he was already a superstar designer. Two decades and 13 championships later he leaves as a true legend. He is also my friend and someone I will be eternally grateful to for everything he brought to our partnership."
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Confirmation of Newey's exit will lead to even greater speculation over where his future lies. Retirement is a possibility for the 65-year-old, but the fact he has negotiated an early end to his Red Bull deal suggests he may want to take on one final new F1 project before he walks away from the sport.
And he is likely to have no shortage of options. Aston Martin made an offer to Newey in March which he could take up, while Ferrari have tried on several occasions to lure the designer to Maranello.
The prospect of linking up either with Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin or Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari may prove to be too tempting to pass up. A more left-field move could perhaps see him join Mercedes, who have struggled to create a competitive car since ground-effect aerodynamics were reintroduced into F1.