The in-demand Newey spent eight seasons with McLaren

Newey will team up again with Scottish driver David Coulthard, with whom he worked at both McLaren and Williams.

A Red Bull spokesman said: "Newey will join the team as chief technical officer at the end of February 2006."

The 46-year-old Englishman won four world titles with Williams before joining McLaren and winning two more.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner said Newey's recruitment demonstrated his team's ambition.

He claimed: "It's a massive for us. Given the choice of Adrian or Michael Schumacher, I'd go for Adrian every time.

"It sends out exactly the right message that we are totally serious about what we want to achieve.

"Adrian was keen to take on a new challenge and I'm delighted that we managed to get him to join us."

BBC motor racing correspondent Maurice Hamilton said the move would destabilise McLaren in the long term.

"It's not just the fact that he's designing the car, it's building up the structure within that team," he said.

"If you take the king pin away, you get a knock-on effect. Other people might leave and some people might go with him."

In their first season after taking over the Jaguar team, Red Bull finished seventh in the constructors' championship, with Coulthard 12th in the drivers' standings.

Newey came close to joining the Jaguar team from McLaren in 2001 but changed his mind at the last minute, prompting a legal battle between the two.