Adrian Newey does not seem to be headed to Ferrari after all, according to well-known former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson.
Newey was back in Red Bull team wear at Silverstone last weekend, despite the gradual reduction in his technical involvement ahead of his eventual departure.
The 65-year-old has been strongly linked with potential moves to Maranello-based Ferrari or Aston Martin - as well as several other F1 teams.
"The only thing that is certain is that to officially know Newey’s future, we will have to wait until September, when his commitment to Red Bull expires," the Italian magazine Autosprint reports.
But Clarkson, who went to Repton public school in Derbyshire with Newey and reportedly is still friends with the F1 design legend, dropped a strong hint about the future at the British GP.
"Want an exclusive?" Clarkson told a reporter for Dutch broadcaster Viaplay while a guest of the Alpine team at Silverstone.
"I know that Adrian Newey is house-hunting in Oxfordshire, not Maranello."
Both Williams and Alpine are based in Oxfordshire, while Haas has a satellite base in the county. Mercedes and Aston Martin, meanwhile, are both based in Northamptonshire - just north of Oxfordshire.
Newey has admitted to rejecting several approaches from Ferrari in the past because he did not want to relocate his family to Italy.
However, Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur said this week that Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at the Maranello based team from 2025 may have changed things.
"For us, (Hamilton is) also the best way to attract good people," he told the Financial Times. "We have good people at Ferrari, but I want to reinforce.
"Most (engineers) are in the UK," Vasseur added. "If you move from Mercedes in Brackley to Red Bull in Milton Keynes, you keep the children at the same school - you keep the same house.
"Coming to Italy, it’s a different story. You have to move the family," the Frenchman added. "It’s a change of life. The move of Lewis will help us."