Adrian Newey is one of the best minds in Formula 1, with the Brit now having designed title winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull across multiple eras of Formula 1.
Newey’s RB18 led Red Bull to both championships last season, taking 17 victories from 22 races along the way.
Heading into the 2023 season it was clear that whilst Red Bull were dominant in 2022, they needed to push on and improve to stay ahead of their rivals.
The energy drink giants have done exactly that, with the new RB19 leading Red Bull to a front row lockout in qualifying and a one-two in the Grand Prix in Bahrain, with no team even coming close to Red Bull.
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The team even asked both of their drivers to slow down to manage an issue towards the end of the race and still won by a considerable margin, showing just how impressive the RB19 really is.
1996 F1 champion Damon Hill has been discussing Adrian Newey’s genius on the F1 Nation podcast and has now revealed what the Red Bull technical officer focused on when designing the RB19.
“He’s been a very successful person and there’s so many different teams now that he’s turned around and waved his magic wand over,” said Hill.
“But Christian [Horner] is always at pains to point out that it’s a team effort, and in actual fact, I learned that actually Adrian spent more time on suspension of this car than he did on the aerodynamics.
“And that points a little bit towards where the time comes from these days with these cars, these big heavy cars, and the way the aerodynamics work, that the weight of the car becomes an issue in slow corners.
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“And many of the listeners will be probably quite surprised to hear this, but racing cars, there’s so much time in slow corners, there’s probably more time in slow corners than there is in fast corners.
“You thought it’s all about speed, but it’s actually about… it is about speed, but it’s about the slow speeds. So yeah, Adrian spent quite a lot of time on the suspension. It may be that he was working on the aerodynamic effects of the suspension, but whatever, the car looks fantastic.”
Having won the Bahrain Grand Prix with ease, Red Bull will now be thinking that as long as they can be reliable this season, they have a strong chance at retaining both of their championships.