Channelling his inner Forrest Gump, design guru admits: "I'm feeling a little bit tired".

Ahead of Friday's sessions, having officially notified the team on Wednesday of his impending departure, Adrian Newey talked to the assembled mechanics in the Red Bull garage, the Briton rewarded with a round of applause.

His decision to quit dominating the headlines, Newey finally broke his silence and explained why he has decided to leave Red Bull after almost 20 years.

"F1 is all consuming," he told Sky Sports. "I've been at it for a long time now. 2021 was a really busy year with all the title battle with Mercedes and at the same time putting all the research and development into the RB18, which is the father of this generation of cars.

"There comes a point where, as Forest Gump said, 'I'm feeling a little bit tired'," he added.

"I've been thinking about it a little while now," he continued, "and then as events have unfolded this year, I'm in the very lucky position where I don't need to work to live, I work because I enjoy it and I felt that now was a good time to take a step back, take a bit of a break, take stock of life, go travelling a bit... with Mandy, my wife and the dogs, probably go travelling, get a motorhome or something and travel down through France and just enjoy life.

"Then, maybe at some point, I don't know when, I'll be standing in the shower and saying, 'right, this is going to be the next adventure'."

When told of Lewis Hamilton's claim that he would be top of his list of people he wants to work with, Newey said: "Honestly, it is very kind of Lewis to say that and I am very flattered. But at the moment it is just time to take a little bit of a break and see what happens next."

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