Max Verstappen kickstarted the 2024 season where he left off in 2023 as he dominated the Bahrain Grand Prix from start to finish. The Dutchman won the race by a staggering margin of 22.457 seconds from Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. Since the Milton Keynes-based outfit seem to have resumed their dominance this year, Jeremy Clarkson has revealed Adrian Newey as the individual on the grid who makes all the difference.
When Martin Brundle asked Clarkson who his money was on, the Top Gear host replied, “Adrian Newey“. Newey has indeed been instrumental in Red Bull’s success over the years as he has helped design all six of the team’s championship-winning cars.
After expressing his admiration for Newey, Clarkson then went on to criticize the rest of the teams. Clarkson expressed concern with the efforts the other teams put in over the winter break as Red Bull continue to have a huge advantage over them.
Among all of Red Bull’s rivals, Clarkson believes that only McLaren have improved significantly. The British expert believes it is an “anomaly” for any side to show such a drastic improvement from one season to another.
Even though only one race has concluded until now, the early signs seem to suggest that Newey has helped produce another beast.
Adrian Newey continues to be the most wanted man in F1
Although it is Max Verstappen who accepts all the honors following his race wins, the one man who perhaps does not receive as much respect as he deserves is Adrian Newey. All the F1 insiders are well aware of how instrumental the 65-year-old has been in Red Bull’s success.
As a result, most teams have often attempted to sign Newey in the past. One of them has been Ferrari. However, the British aerodynamicist has stayed loyal to Red Bull and continues to produce some of the quickest cars for them.
The reason why Red Bull was able to keep hold of Newey was because they were able to offer the 65-year-old with projects other than just F1. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner shed light on the same when he appeared on the Eff Won podcast last year.
Horner said, “Adrian was also very close (to signing for Ferrari). He was about half an hour away from making his decision. I kept him with us by promising him that we would also design a passenger car. ‘If you want to design a car, we will do it,’ I told him“.
Red Bull will be glad that they were able to keep hold of Newey as they broke several records last season. Max Verstappen registered the most wins in a season (19), including the most consecutive number of victories (10). Meanwhile, Red Bull as a team won the most number of Grand Prixs in a single campaign (21).
