In his illustrious F1 career, Adrian Newey has spent 19 years at Red Bull. In those years, the aerodynamicist has won almost everything there is on offer in F1. 2023 was statistically not only his most successful season but of any team in the history of the championship. However, when asked to pick his proudest moment, he chose 2009 — the year Red Bull did not even win a championship.
Speaking on the High-Performance podcast, Newey revealed, “I think probably coming up with that 2009 car [was the proudest moment] because that’s what set us on the path [for championship wins in 2010 to 2013]. Big regulation changes, I mentioned guessing that right. We didn’t win the championship that year.”
Newey recalled the double diffuser saga, which left the entire grid divided. The double diffuser was a clever interpretation of the rules governing the design of a diffuser. While the rules dictated the dimensions of a diffuser in one dimension – the length and the breadth – three teams mounted a larger diffuser on the existing one by carving out openings in the floor.
Brawn GP, Williams, and Toyota exploited the loophole and featured the contentious diffuser design. Meanwhile, other teams protested against it. Red Bull, who were among the most vocal opposers, incorporated the element into their car after the FIA ruled it legal.
Refusing to go into whether he believed the double diffusers were within the regulatory framework, Newey admitted it caught Red Bull “on the back foot.” However, they managed to score more points than ultimate champions Brawn GP in the second half of the season.
The changes made to the design also set the tone for the cars that won them four consecutive championships. “The four subsequent cars, through to 2013, that then did manage to get the double championships. They were derivatives of that first car,” Newey revealed.
Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel combined in the 2010s era:
Championships: 9 (90%)
Wins: 121 (66.1%)
Podiums: 235 (39.6%)
Fastest Laps: 79 (39.9%)
Pole Positions: 123 (62.1%) pic.twitter.com/xTTzNulrWW— Taylor (@TPowlingF1) December 1, 2019
Red Bull commanded that era of regulations with Sebastian Vettel at the helm. While the team bagged four constructors championships, the German did the same in the drivers’ category. That run did not come to an end until the new set of regulations came into play in 2014, setting off another era of dominance with Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes at the sharp end.
David Coulthard predicted Red Bull’s 2010 onslaught but was laughed at
In the run-up to the 2010 F1 season, Coulthard was a panelist alongside Martin Brundle, Eddie Jordan, and Jonathan Legard on BBC. On a pre-season show, the pundits gave their predictions for the constructors’ championship.
Everyone burst into laughter when Coulthard picked Red Bull as the end-of-the-season champions. They even accused him of bias when he picked Vettel as his prediction for the drivers’ champion.
Coulthard was reminded of the incident while co-hosting one of the episodes of the Formula For Success podcast with Jordan. Reading a fan mail, the ex-Red Bull driver said, “He says [the fan], his words, I had the ‘b*lls’ to predict Red Bull and Seb Vettel as the winner, and you all laughed me off the show basically because no-one would imagine he’d gone to win it.”
Revealing the reason for his confidence, Coulthard recalled Newey’s track record with regulation changes. He was confident the aerodynamic genius would see this as an opportunity and come up with an innovative design that would give his team an edge over others. Newey certainly lived up to that expectation once again in 2022 with ground-effect rules.
