7 fascinating takeaways from a rare and revealing interview with F1 genius Adrian Newey

adrian newey is one of the most iconic names in formula one a designed genius who has overseen world championship winning success with williams mclaren and red bull newly has enjoyed a phenomenal career with incredible longevity with his cars winning races and championships from the early 90s all the way up to the present day but newey has never courted the limelight that his talents and achievements would deserve he rarely gives interviews and he definitely isn't one for sound bites over a grand prix weekend however the races f1 writer mark hughes got a rare opportunity to sit down with newey for an in-depth conversation which recently became the 10 000th article published on our website since we launched in february 2020 it was a fitting way to mark such a big moment for us and the interview was so good we thought we'd go through some of the highlights from it with you here on our youtube channel as well so let's take a rare glimpse inside the mind of one of f1's most successful and fascinating characters after four years of domination with sebastian vettel at red bull knew he found himself questioning his future in f1 in 2014 and it was all renault's fault it wasn't simply that he'd got used to winning again and renault was slow out of the blocks in the hybrid era it was the french manufacturer's attitude new he said we had a supplier that seemed more interested in the marketing angle that came from being in f1 than actually being competitive and he went on to say that renault didn't want to accept it was behind and didn't seem motivated to do enough about its plight newly admits he lost motivation he turned down offers from mercedes and ferrari because deep down he didn't want to leave behind everything he'd helped build at red bull but the renault situation pushed him very close to walking away from f1 entirely while red bull and renault fell out in public over the years that followed knew his day-to-day involvement in f1 waned he admits there were some years where he wouldn't get a proper look at the latest regulations and the new cars until arriving at the first race of the season at which point he would set about trying to help red bull improve its car the aston martin valkyrie supercar project kept him busy during those years and his passion for f1 was reinvigorated when honda arrived as red bull's new engine partner referencing renault again newey told us if you have an engine partner that's below the competitors but shows a real desire and a will to fix it then you accept it with honda that's what red bull had newey says the japanese engine was not quite there in 2019 but honda's drive and motivation to get it right changed his attitude towards jumping back into f1 it certainly paid off with max verstappen winning rebels first championship since vettel's fourth title in 2013 and the team making a strong start to the new rules era in 2022 knew he wasn't impressed with the 2022 rules when he first saw them in fact he goes as far as saying he was quite depressed by them as one of f1's great creative minds he's always taken issue with the constant tightening of the regulations which he feels can stifle clever thinking but once he got stuck into the new package for this year he was pleasantly surprised knew he found there was freedom in some areas most notably the side pods floor and suspension so he's not been surprised to see as much variation as there is on the grid in those areas although he admitted that he didn't see the mercedes side pod solution coming before we move on to some more of the things new he talked about with mark hughes we've got a question for you of all the iconic cars nui has designed which is your favorite let us know in the comments and if you're not already a subscriber to our channel we'd love to have you along so you never miss another video from us this entry might turn the comments of this video into the typical f1 social media war zone and we can only apologize for that but while nui understandably takes the red bull party line in stating the silverstone collision between verstappen and lewis hamilton was a clear professional foul by the mercedes driver he's more balanced on their late season altercations he accepts that verstappen's run off track in defending his position in the brazilian grand prix was a bit naughty and he adds that the eventual world champion shouldn't have break tested hamilton in the saudi arabian grand prix even if he feels that was done out of frustration newey believes verstappen's reputation for being wild is unfair and he thinks it takes time for a driver to shake off a label like that once the paddock has made its mind up verstappen is the seventh driver to win a championship driving one of newey's cars and perhaps unsurprisingly new he finds him great to work with he finds verstappen very open saying he always rings a car's neck and when you ask him to do something he'll always try it he praises verstappen's feedback and his awareness of what the tyres are doing and how to manage them and he says drivers like verstappen and daniel ricardo are easy to work with because their approach to debriefs is to concentrate on the things you need to know while also being happy to take time to answer follow-up questions nue also gave a fascinating insight into working with sebastian vettel and mika hakkinen so check out the link to the article in the description of this video if you want to read about those it's not an exaggeration to say that newey almost wasn't around to see his latest world championship success at the end of 2021 just a few months earlier he suffered a fractured skull while on holiday in croatia and were it not for the help of former f1 supremo bernie ecclestone among others knew he might not still be here to tell us how it happened knew he had knocked himself out after falling down a six-foot drop onto a rocky beach while cycling but having come to a few seconds later he thought he'd escaped with just a gash to the head however when he woke up feeling dreadful the next morning action was required ecclestone used his croatian contacts to get hold of a top neurosurgeon who got newly admitted to hospital red bull team boss christian horner arranged for newey to be flown back to the uk where his friend joe makari found a neurosurgeon to operate on the skull that houses one of the most brilliant minds in f1 history having missed a few races he returned to the paddock in turkey but that was probably a little too soon and he says he still wasn't feeling great until the next race in america looking back at it now in his brilliantly understated way he sums it up as a silly accident and not recommended so nui has come close to not being here at all or simply walking away from f1 in the past he's 63 now and has been working in top level motorsport since the early 1980s so it's fair to wonder what his next steps might be as he ponders a life away from the coalface he knows he'd get bored if he just stopped working all together even though he could certainly afford it f1 wise he's hinted at taking a slightly distant advisory role similar to what rory byrne has done at ferrari however he'd want to be making genuinely useful contributions rather than just appearing at the factory from time to time to be a distraction to the design team he's also got a big interest in the future of road cars especially as he feels that industry is heading in the wrong direction by creating big heavy electric vehicles that he feels aren't particularly efficient if a manufacturer could ever convince newey to make the full-time switch the road car industry's gain would very much be f1's loss there's lots more to hear from nui in the interview on our website so make sure you check out the link in the description of this video to give that a read and we hope you've enjoyed our little overview here of some of the things he talked about [Music]

Channel: THE RACE

Views: 270,282

Keywords: f1, formula 1, formula one, F1 news, F1 latest, F1 updates, F1 explained, The Race, the-race.com, grand prix, F1 2022, Adrian Newey, F1 design, Red Bull, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, 2021 F1 season, Hamilton vs Verstappen, Brazilian GP, Saudi Arabian GP, Hamilton Verstappen silverstone crash, Williams, McLaren, F1 tech, F1 technology, F1 rules

Id: YjS5sm8ROMM

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Sat May 14 2022