Adrian Newey is almost certainly Ferrari-bound after admitting on Thursday that he expects to join another Formula One team before retiring.

Sources in Italy have indicated to Mail Sport that his contract with the Scuderia, which would partner him with Lewis Hamilton, is already signed.

Another senior figure in the sport said that if the ink wasn’t already dry that it soon would be.

Speculation over Newey’s future has swirled since the 65-year-old super-designer announced earlier this month that he would be leaving Red Bull after 19 years.

He has since been coy about what may come next, but on Thursday said: ‘I feel a little tired but at some point I’ll probably go again,’ adding that he was ‘seriously considering going somewhere else and doing another four or five years.’

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Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey is understood to have signed a deal to join Ferrari

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He’ll join alongside Lewis Hamilton, who announced this year that he’d be leaving Mercedes

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Newey’s exit is believed to have stemmed partially from the controversy surrounding Red Bull chief Christian Horner (right)

He noted that his father retired at 65 and ‘kind of lost his way a bit, just lost his mojo’.

Newey is wanted by most teams in the paddock having overseen technical successes at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull. He will become available after severing links with his employers early next year.

Currently earning an estimated £15million, he has every chance of securing a major rise.

Despite the Ferrari deal being done, or nearly done, McLaren have held out hope that he might be tempted back to them. Williams have also been in touch.

Newey has previously said that he regretted having not worked with Hamilton, so pairing up with the seven-time world champion at motor racing’s most fabled team offers the perfect coda to the most successful designing career the sport has known.

Newey left Red Bull for several reasons: he felt he was not given enough credit for Max Verstappen’s winning car, believing team principal Christian Horner was basking in the limelight. Then the scandal that engulfed Horner, who was cleared of misconduct towards a female employee, stoked those resentments.

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Newey opened up on his future during an interview with Eddie Jordan (right) on Thursday

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Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has done some excellent business ahead of next season

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Newey also feels that he was not given enough credit for helping build Max Verstappen’s winning car

Hamilton, for his part, said recently that Newey was top of his list.

Newey added: ‘To walk away from Red Bull was a very hard decision but it was one I needed to take for a whole host of reasons. They had been my family.

‘I never really thought it would be big news so for it to be in all the flipping papers and on the telly was a shock.’