Adrian Newey is arguably one of the most brilliant minds to ever work in F1. He specializes in the aerodynamics of F1 cars and has tasted success for whichever team he has been a part of to date. Today, he is the CTO of Red Bull, but Newey started off at March/Leyton House, before joining Williams in 1991.
After his Williams stint, he joined McLaren where he was highly valued by the team boss Ron Dennis. As a result, when Christian Horner wanted to bring him to Red Bull in 2006, he had to work extra hard because Dennis was not going to let him go easily. According to Horner, he had to ‘wrestle’ against the McLaren boss to have Newey over at Milton-Keynes.
Newey’s arrival at Red Bull changed the game, as they started their journey toward becoming the dominant team in F1. Between 2010 and 2013, they won four Constructors’ Championships. Subsequently, they had to spend eight years in the shadows of Mercedes due to the latter’s superior engine, but they are finally at the top once again.
Adrian Newey is an inspiration to Red Bull, says Christian Horner
Horner shed light to the unique working style of Newey that sets him apart from anyone else in F1. According to him, the 64-year-old still works in the midst of things instead of delegating work, since he has been at the helm of the technical aspect of F1 for so long.
“He has been the conductor of the technical orchestra for all these years now,” said Horner in the Talking Bull podcast. “But he is still very hands-on. He works in a different way to perhaps other technical leaders. He is still at his drawing board, I think it’s probably the only drawing board in Formula 1. I had to argue with Ron Dennis to wrestle it out of McLaren.”
Horner went on to say that Newey shapes the philosophy at Red Bull, which inspires all of them to work much harder.
Red Bull dominated the 2022 F1 season, winning 16 out of the 22 races that year. They plan on carrying forward with the good form in 2023, and are currently being considered as favorites to hit the ground running ahead of pre-season testing.
