Adrian Newey: Formula 1's greatest designer

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Adrian Newey is a renowned Formula 1 engineer currently employed by Red Bull Racing. He is commonly cited as one of the greatest minds in modern motorsport and has won numerous awards from McLaren, Williams and Red Bull. He is also the Chief Designer of the Red Bull RB6 and RB7, the 2010 and 2011 season winning Formula One cars.

Early years

Newey was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK on December 26, 1958. His father was a veterinarian and his mother was a former ambulance driver. His older brother left home when Adrian was very young, because the boy grew up as an only child in the family. His father was a car enthusiast, and their shop had a succession of Mini Coopers, Jaguars and what Newey considered the most interesting trims from Lotus. As far as he remembers, Adrian wanted to be a race engineer. As a young lad, he collected sports car models and soon he modified them in his workshop.

A real engineering genius, even as a teenager, Adrian's thoughts naturally manifested in form - he began to drawsketching his own cars at the age of 12 and took a welding course during his school summer break.

Adrian Newey attended Repton Public School with famed Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, but was asked to leave at the age of 16. Clarkson later remarked that only two students had been expelled in the history of the school, he and Newey. After Repton, the guy entered the Mid Warwickshire College of Further Education in Leamington. Luckily, he was able to turn things around and get into the University of Southampton, where he earned a degree in aeronautics and astronautics. For Newey, designing race cars was really like rocket science. His graduation project was ground effect aerodynamics on racing cars.

Career

After graduating and looking for a job with top F1 teams, he decided to work for Emerson Fittipaldi's small team under Harvey Postlethwaite. The team will soon cease operations, and Newey will be forced to look for a new job.

In March 1984, Newey continued his career with the racing company March, getting into the American Indy-Car project, where he became a designer and race engineer for Bobby Rahal. Adrian formed a close friendship with Rahal, who created the March 86C, with which he won the CART and Indy 500 titles in 1986. After several years with various teams, he returned to March as chief designer of Formula 1 racing cars.

March, joined by Newey,lived through not his best days, and in 1990 March became Leyton House Racing, and Newey became its technical director. Despite the name change, the team's fortunes did not improve, and at the end of the year, Newey was out of a job. Then Williams, the leading team, did not waste time signing a contract with a young designer, and Newey awarded her two World Cups in 1992 and 1993 with riders Mansell and Prost, respectively. Tragedy struck in 1994 with the death of Ayrton Senna. In the weeks following the accident, Newey considered quitting his job.

“Honestly, no one will ever know exactly what happened. There is no doubt that the steering column failed, and the big question was that this caused the accident. The car had cracks, and at some point it could have failed. There is no doubt that his design was very poor. However, all evidence suggests that the car did not derail as a result of a steering column failure,” said Adrian Newey.

Besides being an extremely talented designer, Newey could be quite restless. At Williams, he always found himself reporting to Patrick Head, the technical director and also the founder. Newey also found himself conflicted with some personal decisions regarding the team's riders. Newey wanted to be the person in charge of all technical matters. In 1997, Newey defeated archrival McLaren and was soon followed by titles with Mika Hakkinen in 1998 and 1999. In 2001he signed a new contract and was shocked when Ron Dennis tried to beat him back.

There was a boring question about salaries and I was expecting at least what I was already doing, but Ron [Dennis, McLaren chairman] offered 75% of it. At the same time, my old friend Bobby Rahal made me an offer to join the Jaguar F1 team. I was close to leaving when two things happened: I realized that the politics inside Jaguar weren't good and Ron offered to triple my salary. So I stayed.

In the summer of 2014, Adrian Newey signed a new contract with Red Bull Technology, and rumors about his transfer to the Ferrari team stopped. But this new contract was really the end of the Englishman's career as a racing car designer. From the end of 2014, Newey will be involved in other projects within Red Bull and will only play an advisory role in the development of future Red Bull Grand Prix racing cars.

Adrian Newey How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Formula One Designer

How to Build a Car explores the story of Newey's 35-year unrivaled F1 career through the lens of the cars he designed, the drivers he worked with and the races he competed in. Adrian Newey's book is beautifully illustrated with unique drawings that, thanks to Adrian's wonderful life story, tell exactly what makes Formula 1 so exciting - its potential for complete synchrony between man and machine, the perfect combination of style, efficiency and speed.

In Russia saleThe book launched in December 2018. Everything you love about Formula 1 can be found in this book.

Adrian Newey Cars

In 2003, Newey created what he called his worst car ever. It was compact and tightly packed, so much so that it was difficult to get to the gearbox and engine without having to remove significant parts of the suspension. The side pods were found to be too fragile and twice failed the mandatory FIA crash test. To complete the picture, the gearbox got so hot that its heat-resistant coating peeled off.

Even with his obvious step back in day-to-day F1 work, most teams still dream of hiring him. It seems unbelievable to many that one would even consider firing Newey, but during a long and exciting career, he was asked to leave and was fired.