Adrian Newey Once Drove His Own F1 Car and Lost Control – “Like WW3 Breaking Out”

It is no mystery that Adrian Newey has designed multiple championship-winning F1 cars in his illustrious career. But when the opportunity to drive his self-designed F1 car appeared, he felt like all eyes were on him more than ever. As he sat in his FW15, a sudden feeling of intense claustrophobia rushed through his nerves. He wanted to deliver a good account of himself. And when he finally drove it at the Paul Ricard circuit, he lost control. Recalling the experience in his book, ‘How to Build a car,’ Newey said:

Taking to the straight, I had the traction control wound up high for stability, but even so it felt like I was wrestling with the car rather than driving it. I was wearing my motorcycle helmet, which was in constant danger of being sucked off my head, the chin strap throttling me. I’d thought the constant howling noise was immense at a standstill, but on the track it’s like World War III breaking out in the cockpit.

In 1993, Newey was the chief designer at Williams when he got the opportunity to drive an F1 car. He was 35, ten years into the F1 business, and had already won two constructors’ championships. Yet, when he sat in the FW15 for the first time, he realized there were so many things he had paid little attention to as an engineer.

Newey had been warned to be smooth on the clutch to prevent it from stalling. And he absolutely did not want to do that. Especially since he had designed the car. However, to his embarrassment, he stalled it.

After he finally managed to get it off the line, it was as though the V10 was screaming at him. He was only getting used to the car and taking control of it when it started to rain. Experiencing the Circuit Paul Ricard from the driver’s perspective, Newey was mulling over making the car more aerodynamically efficient when he lost focus in the rain and spun the FW15.

Since Circuit Paul Ricard has many run-offs, Newey did not hit the barriers as he was not driving at a high speed. But since his reflexes weren’t that strong as an engineer, he wasn’t quick with the clutch as he spun and stalled the car again.

What led Adrian Newey into driving the F1 car?

Frank Williams, the owner of Williams Racing, had been talked into letting some journalists drive the F1 car for promotion. Patrick Head, co-founder, and technical director of the team, thought of giving the same opportunity to his senior engineers.

Newey was one of those engineers, Head, and Bernard Dudot, who managed the Renault engine development.

Later in his years with Williams, Newey fell out with Head after the latter breached his contract. Disappointed with what Williams had done to him, Newey resigned from his post in 1996 and joined McLaren.