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The biggest news in Formula 1 this week has nothing to do with a driver, an owner, or a team principal — the F1 world is talking about Adrian Newey.
Red Bull's long-time chief technical officer will leave the team at the end of the season, and with it, change the complex of the F1 landscape.
In a year where Lewis Hamilton announced his move to Ferrari, Carlos Sainz is fielding offers, and Audi made their first move before entering F1, Newey's availability has become the most prized commodity of them all.
Newey does not drive cars, he designs them — and nobody has ever done it better.
F1 cars designed by him have resulted in 12 constructors' world championships, and 13 drivers championships.
He designed the great Williams and McLaren cars during the 1990s and has been Red Bull's chief technical engineer since 2006.
Newey-designed F1 cars have won more than 200 grands prix, and he has been courted by teams in the past like he was a driver.
Currently, the Newey-designed Red Bull has won consecutive constructors' championships, and helped Max Verstappen become a three-time world champion.
In the words of legendary F1 journalist David Tremayne:
"Verstappen is clearly as special a driver as the greatest past champions, but nobody would deny, least of all Max himself, that the greatest weapon in his armoury is the car designed by Adrian Newey."
Now he is on the market for the first time in almost two decades.
Reports have been swirling for months about Newey relationship with the team, as Red Bull has bee dealing with internal fighting and an investigation into its team principal Christian Horner over allegations of inappropriate workplace behaviour.
On Wednesday the announcement many thought was a formality became official — Newey is on the market.
It's not the first time Newey has been treated like a driver, with the Guardian reporting at the time his move to Red Bull in 2006 came after McLaren would not meet his salary demands.
Almost 20 years later there is almost no price not worth paying to get Newey's brilliance into a team.
There is almost no doubt teams will be lining up to secure his services.
F1 has a change in regulations beginning in 2026, which means Newey's next team can give him a head start on building potentially the next world championship-winning car.
Aston Martin reportedly tabled a deal to Newey earlier this year, which kick-started the rumour mill about his future.
Newey was instrumental in turning an energy-drink company into one of F1's most legendary teams, so why not do it all over again with a team whose history has been in the midfield?
However, Ferrari is speculated to be the team with the best chance of securing the Briton's signature.
Last year he spoke of his fondness for the Italian outfit and how he has been close to joining the team on two occasions.
Newey could fancy himself as the man to design Ferrari's first championship winning car since 2008.
A move to Ferrari would also link him with Hamilton — a partnership which would strike as much fear as the Newey-Verstappen duo does today.
Newey's already immense legacy would be cemented into F1 lore as the man who designed the car that Hamilton drove to win his record eighth world title.
Mercedes and Audi — who will take over the Sauber team from 2026 — are also major players who could sway Newey to join them.
Coming into this season, more than half of the drivers were out of contract by the year's end.
It was expected the major news and drama around contracts would be focused on the drivers.
But that has changed with one announcement.
The battle off-track to secure Newey's signature will be as fierce as any battle between drivers on track — because the race for his signature could be the difference between winning and losing.
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