Downfall of British Bike Industry Motivated Adrian Newey to Fight ‘Engineering Arrogance’ at Red Bull

In an exclusive interview after the announcement of his new contract with Aston Martin, Adrian Newey recalled a meeting from his past with an official of the UK-based motorcycle manufacturer ‘Triumph’ and how his attitude towards the rise of Japanese rivals revealed a ‘Midlands arrogance’.

Newey explained how Japanese motorcycle brands like Yamaha, Suzuki, and Honda were making a big wave in the UK in the 1970s with their performance and reliability being much better than UK-based manufacturers. When he tried to ask about the challenges of competing with those brands, the official at Trimph said that they were doing their very best to produce the best motorcycles in the world and Newey had nothing to worry about.

This attitude, which Newey labeled as the ‘Midlands Arrogance’, is what he considered was the reason behind the decline of the British Motorcycle Industry. He also compared this to the culture he encountered when he first joined Red Bull and he wanted to change that.

Speaking on the ‘High Performance’ podcast, Newey explained, “That sort of Midlands engineering arrogance, I call it, had percolated and was very much alive and well there [at Red Bull]”. He recalled how he went on a meeting with the key engineering staff at Red Bull and how they asked him to just fit into the culture they had there.

“One of them said to me,” he recalled, “‘Adrian we’re very delighted to have you here but please be aware that we at Jaguar [the team bought by Dietrich Mateschitz] have our way of doing things and we expect you to fit in’.”

Newey highlighted how it was one of the most difficult things to overcome at Red Bull and it took them well over a year to get rid of that mentality.