“That was very depressing”: Adrian Newey explains what Red Bull learnt during Mercedes’ era of dominance

Red Bull as a team is on top of the world in F1 currently. They dominated the 2022 season in all aspects, winning the Constructors’ Championship by a huge margin. Max Verstappen also guided them to back-to-back Drivers’ Title wins, which well and truly pointed towards the start of a new era.

Between 2014 and 2021, Mercedes won all eight Constructors’ Championship Titles. This was one of the most dominant eras in F1 history, and it was Red Bull always fell short during this time period. It was difficult for Red Bull to fight for wins and watch Mercedes dominate from the sidelines, but they took it as a learning.

17 wins in 2022 🏆 One iconic Team celebration 😄 pic.twitter.com/2E7Adp4KhB

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) November 21, 2022

Red Bull’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey recently shared how he and other members of the Austrian team felt during those years. He admitted that he had learned a lot, and the first thing he wanted to emphasize was to have a ‘decent engine’.

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Red Bull was suffering because of Renault’s underwhelming power units

Red Bull won four back-t0-back World Championships with Renault as their engine manufacturer. However, the onset of the turbo-hybrid era in F1 took a huge hit on their performance. The French company struggled to make a decent power-unit, that limited Red Bull’s performances.

The Milton-Keynes-based outfit shifted to Honda in 2019, but their years of struggling behind Mercedes and Ferrari hurt them a lot. Newey suggested that the moment they shifted to Honda’s PUs, they were able to fight back and respond.

What did you both learn during that period of Mercedes’s dominance?

Adrian Newey: “Have a decent engine. We went into the hybrid era, and Renault got it wrong, so that was pretty depressing because you realised that in your foreseeable future if you do a spectacular job, you…” pic.twitter.com/Eg2clrU51l

— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) December 14, 2022

“We went into the hybrid era, and Renault got it wrong, so that was pretty depressing,” the 63-year-old said. “Because you realized that in your foreseeable future if you do a spectacular job, you might snatch the odd win, but you’re never going to win a championship.”

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Newey lauds Red Bull’s dedication and hard work

The legendary F1 engineer praised the Red Bull team for not giving up during that difficult time period. Mercedes winning almost every race was tough to digest, especially since they were putting in so much effort but it wasn’t materializing into victories.

However, the fact that they kept their head down and pushed ahead is what allowed them to bounce back in 2021.

“That was a reset,” said Newey. “I think one of the strengths of the team is that we put our heads down and got through that period so that when once we had a good power unit again with a partnership with Honda, we were able to respond.”