Red Bull principal Christian Horner is adamant that Adrian Newey has not fallen out of love with Formula 1, despite becoming less involved with the design of grand prix cars.
The 55-year-old will head up the Advanced Technologies department at Red Bull, who recently announced that they would be working with Olympic champion Sir Ben Ainslie on a British bid to win sailing's America's Cup.
However, Horner has insisted that Newey will continue to be involved in the making of the constructor's 2015 car.
He told Autosport: "Adrian has been in a transitionary phase this year where he stepped back a little more from the operational side, but he's still very much been involved and has been in the 2015 car.
"As we develop the Advanced Technology side of the business, he's going to be having a key involvement in that, but Formula 1 will still burn deeply inside of him and he enjoys working within our environment and feeding off the engineers.
"Despite the fact it will be a diminished involvement from Adrian, it's still a very positive one."
Red Bull finished 306 points behind Mercedes in the constructors' championship.
Chris O'Keefe
