Meet Adrian Newey, the OBE and the brains behind Red Bull’s intimidating resurgence in Formula One
Adrian Newey has played a huge role in getting things back on track for Red Bull.
The 10,000-hour rule, popularized by author Malcolm Gladwell in the book Outliers, has been contentious from day one. Ever heard of it? Basically, if one puts in 10,000 hours of practice, any skill can be mastered irrespective of whether or not one has any natural talent for it. Many believe in it, many don’t. Who cares? The man who has turned around Formula One team Red Bull’s fortunes appears to believe in it. The team’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey is not new to the sport. He has been around for more than three decades and also has plied his trade for Williams & McLaren in the past and his designed cars have won a dozen constructors’ championships to date.
By all accounts, Newey, recipient of the Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2012 and father of 25-year-old racing driver Harrison, is an unassuming person and there are not many heart-to-heart media interactions can be found involving him. In what can only be considered fortuitous for an average F1 fan, the 64-year-old spoke to BBC Sport recently at length and shed light on his personal life as well as the technicalities that are involved in the making of a race car.
In the ongoing season that’s going to end this weekend in Abu Dhabi, Red Bull have been miles ahead of the rest. They have already sealed the drivers' championship as well as the constructors' championship. Red Bull’s Dutch driver Max Verstappen has won a whopping 18 races out of 21 Grands Prix so far, including the inaugural Las Vegas GP last week.
This type of dominance is unprecedented in the history of the sport. Last season, Verstappen had won 15 races and overtook Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s record of 13 wins with Ferrari and Red Bull in 2004 and 2013 respectively. This season, Verstappen has broken his own record and that too by a mile -- and with one race to go. Of course, a driver’s skills can’t be turned a blind eye to but fact of the matter is in F1, cars dictate everything; they take precedence over everything else. So, Newey is your man! He deserves a lot of credit for what the team has achieved particularly in the last couple of seasons. He is the man who has ended Mercedes' dominance in recent years.
Newey believes that the fact his father, a vet, was big on math and engineering and his mother on artistic things, it helped him a lot growing up since he inherited both traits which is a deadly combo. At a very young age he had started drawing racing cars on paper, paying attention to details. That’s how it all started. At some point, he would have gone past 10,000 hours!
But Newey is reluctant to take all credit for Red Bull’s dominance. He praises Verstappen not a little, highlighting how three aspects – good car, good driver and good engine -- need to align before great results can be realized. Which kind of makes sense because if the car was the most important thing, then how come Sergio Perez, the other driver at Red Bull, has not had that kind of success? He has not been even close. So clearly there is something Verstappen is doing and Perez not.
F1 introduced new regulations for 2021 and that set Newey to come up with something out of the ordinary. "We have managed to read regulations changes well and come back with a car we can then evolve," Newey, who has been with Red Bull since 2006, told BBC Sport. "Weight loss was part of it [for 2023]. We never managed to get down to the weight limit last year. By the end of the season, we were still significantly over, so much more detail through the winter to get the weight off, and then the rest was primarily aerodynamic refinement."
The last Grand Prix of the year is on the coming Sunday at the Yas Marina Circuit and Verstappen is an overwhelming favourite to make it 19 out of 22. Irrespective of what happens, including even if he fails to find a place on the podium, he will hog all the limelight for the exceptional season he has had. He deserves every bit of it but don’t forget, away from the spotlight in a corner there is a self-effacing man who has made it possible for him and everyone else at Red Bull.
