Adrian Newey will go down in Formula 1 history as one of the most intelligent minds to ever have graced the sport.
The 63-year-old played a massive part in Williams’ success in the 1990s, before moving onto McLaren where his designs led Mika Hakkinen to two consecutive championship victories.
When the late Dietrich Mateschitz purchased a struggling Jaguar outfit in 2005, rebranding them as Red Bull Racing, the team knew that it would take a significant overhaul to bring success to the team, so they headhunted the very best.
Team principal Christian Horner has claimed that there was only one name in his mind when the time came to bring in some fresh faces to improve the team.
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“What was missing was a clear technical direction,” explained Horner.
“I’d always been a fan of Adrian and his cars going way back to the Leyton House times in the late 1980s.
“Adrian was the very best that there’s ever been in Formula 1. It was a question of how could we entice Adrian to join the Red Bull team.”
Newey has helped Red Bull to five constructors’ championships since his appointment in 2006, providing both Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen with stunning pieces of machinery a decade apart from each other.
Horner has praised his chief technical officer’s impact on Red Bull Racing, claiming that Newey is still as innovative and hard working today as he was at the start of his career.
“He’s the only bloke that can see air,” joked the Red Bull boss.
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“He lives in the matrix. He’s been the conductor of the technical orchestra for all these years mow. He’s still very hands on, he’s still at his drawing board.
“I think it’s the only drawing board in Formula 1, I had to argue with Ron Dennis to wrestle it out of McLaren.”
The 63-year-old has now created 11 constructors’ championship winning cars, with three separate teams, making him a true legend of the sport.
Newey’s genius will be given possibly it’s toughest test in 2023, as Red Bull will have to design the RB18’s successor with ten percent less wind tunnel testing time than originally planned, after the team was found guilty and punished for a minor breach of the 2021 cost cap.