This Monday sees the launch of the RB8: the car that will lead Red Bull Racing’s challenge for the 2012 Formula One world championships.
It’s the brainchild of the team’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey, a man with 14 F1 world titles to his name, making him one of the most successful designers in F1 history. We look back over his career and crunch the numbers on Adrian Newey OBE…
Adrian Newey is described – in the politest possible way – as a throwback. Ross Brawn, long time nemesis and now Mercedes team principle says F1 designers like Adrian, and former Benetton and Ferrari man Rory Byrne, represent a bygone era in which a strong central figure was able to do it all.
Designers who consider the chassis as a whole, calling on their experience designing in junior series and other categories across a wide range of racing car formulae.
With the majority of modern F1 cars designed much more as a collaborative exercise, it isn’t a fashionable method of operating any more – it isn’t that the success of Byrne and Newey go unnoticed, more that they just don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
Here’s some of Adrian Newey’s highlights from 30 years in motor racing…
•6 chassis manufacturers have employed Adrian: Fittipaldi Automotive, March (twice), Haas/FORCE, Williams, McLaren, Red Bull
•Adrian’s March sportscar prototypes won 2 IMSA GTP championships with 18 victories
•Newey-designed March Indycar chassis won 3 [+1] Indy 500s, 2 CART titles and 32 [+2] victories
Career in F1
HAAS/FORCE
Hired in June 1986. No success!
March / Leyton House 1987 – 1990
2 [+1] podium finishes
Williams 1990 – 1997
(After being fired by Leyton House in the Summer of 1990, just before the French Grand Prix, Newey is hired by Williams)
51 (+1) [+8] victories
60 (+1) [+7] other podium finishes
66 (+1) [+11] pole positions
54 (+4) [+9] fastest laps
Drivers’ Championships: 3 [+1997]
Constructors’ Championships: 4 [+1997]
David Coulthard in the 1995 Williams © LAT Photographic/Williams F1
McLaren 1997 – 2005
After much speculation, Williams and McLaren announced on April 28, 1997, that Adrian Newey would be joining the latter from August 1, 1997.
41 (+2) victories
75 (+2) other podium finishes
42 (+1) pole positions
55 (+1) fastest laps
Drivers’ Championships: 2
Constructors’ Championships: 1
Red Bull Racing 2006 – Present
Red Bull announced on November 8, 2005, that Adrian Newey would be joining the team in February 2006 as chief technical officer.
27 victories
38 (+1) other podium finishes
38 pole positions
22 fastest laps
Drivers’ Championships: 2
Constructors’ Championships: 2
Figures in brackets: statistics accrued while Newey was employed by the company but early in his employment using cars into which he had little or no input.
Figures in square brackets: statistics accrued after Newey left the company but leaving a legacy of cars in which he had been heavily involved.
Want more?
- The official Williams F1 team site
- Red Bull Racing's homepage
- Adrian Newey profile and news at redbull.com
- More motorsports on redbull.com
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