While the drivers are always on the front cover of all the magazines, very little attention goes to the geniuses that come up with the cars they drive. When we think of the championship-winning seasons of Max Verstappen or Sebastian Vettel, we always think the car comes from Red Bull, however, these brilliant F1 cars were all designed by British aerodynamicist, Adrian Newey.
Adrian Newey may not be in front of the cameras very often, but has taken center stage at the start of the 2022 season. Due to the season being a developmental season, Newey has claimed a permanent seat in the garage for every race weekend so far. Newey is currently the Chief Technical Officer of Red Bull Racing and is in charge of the development of all their Formula 1 cars and specialized parts. To learn more about this engineering genius, here are 10 fast facts about Adrian Newey:
10 Schooled With Jeremy Clarkson
While many may not know about Adrian Newey, most gearheads are familiar with Jeremy Clarkson. Adrian Newey may be worlds apart from Jeremy Clarkson personality-wise, but they both attended Repton public school in the United Kingdom.
Newey focused and did incredibly well in his schooling career, but was asked to leave school at the age of 16. This was because he turned the sound up at a school event, breaking the building’s stained glass in the process.
9 Degree In Aeronautics
Newey furthered his education at the University of Southampton. Here, Newey studied engineering with a first-class honors degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1980. Throughout his university career, Newey was interested in both aeronautics and motorsport.
Although Newey was passionate about aeronautics, motorsport provided him with the opportunity to move straight from university into Formula 1. This was a deal too good to pass up and saw Newey enter the world of Formula 1 in 1981.
8 Fittipaldi Formula 1 Team
Joining the March team in 1981, Newey was appointed as a race engineer for Johnny Cecotto. Although Johnny participated in Formula 2, this provided Newey with the knowledge and experience he needed to move on to Formula 1.
While with the March team, Newey developed his skills and learned under the mentorship of Harvey Postlethwaite. Newey managed a few projects with the team, including designing a number of different karts for the team’s junior league.
7 March GTP
Newey began his career designing cars at Fittipaldi as well. This first project turned out to be very successful for Newey as it managed to win the IMSA GTP competition for 2 years in a row. As part of the March team, Newey contributed to the design of the car while working on a number of other projects at the same time.
This included work on an IndyCar and junior kart at the same time. While this may not have been as glamorous as working in Formula 1, Newey utilized this time to gather experience within the industry and build relationships that would help him later on in his career.
6 IndyCar
Although many may know of his genius designs in Formula 1, Newey also designed and worked heavily on an IndyCar project in 1984. Working for Bobby Rahal at Truesports, Newey helped design the March 85C.
This design competed in the 1985 Indianapolis 500 contest with Danny Sullivan. This showcased the experience and skill that Newey had for design and was monumental in securing him a job at Kraco to help engineer a car for Michael Andretti.
5 Michael Andretti’s Engineer
In 1986, Newey made the move from Fittipaldi to Kraco to be the engineer for Michael Andretti. While he did move to Kraco, his designs at March continued to win awards and races in the 1986 Indianapolis 500 race with Bobby Rahal.
Newey joined Haas Lola F1 at the end of the year before working on Andretti’s car in 1987. It was during this time that Newey was called back to March to work in Formula 1 as a chief designer for March/Leyton House.
4 Williams F1
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Despite what you may think of the Williams team now, they were on top of the timesheets in the 80s and 90s. They managed to achieve this through innovative design that leapfrogged much of the competition.
Newey joined the team in 1988 and partnered with Patrick Head for the role of technical director of the team. Here, Newey designed some of the team’s fastest cars, winning championship after championship.
3 McLaren
In 1997, Newey moved from Williams to McLaren. While many criticized the move due to the success Newey had at Williams, he managed to silence critics with his latest creation. Adrian won immediately at the 1997 European Grand Prix.
This helped him secure a few more titles to add to his growing collection in 1998 and 1999. In the spring of 2001, Adrian signed a lucrative contract with the Jaguar F1 team. This saw him set to return to the team run by his long-time friend, Bobby Rahal. Unfortunately, this deal didn’t end up going through, leaving Newey with McLaren till 2004.
2 Red Bull
It was no secret that Newey wanted to leave McLaren for a few years. When Red Bull managed to purchase Jaguar, this provided Newey with the perfect opportunity to make the move. Red Bull signed a lucrative deal with Newey, rumored to be worth around $10 million a year.
Newey took a few years to settle into the new team, but soon topped the timesheets with Sebastian Vettel’s 2010 contender. This saw him create 4 Championship-winning cars back-to-back. Despite the first 3 being fairly easy, the last title quickly became a development race against Ferrari in 2013. Newey had to dig deep that season, ultimately creating a car that was able to dominate the second half of the season and secure the title.
1 Awards
Newey took a few years to settle into the new team, but soon topped the timesheets with Sebastian Vettel’s 2010 contender. This saw him create 4 Championship-winning cars back-to-back. Despite the first 3 being fairly easy, the last title quickly became a development race against Ferrari in 2013. Newey had to dig deep that season, ultimately creating a car that was able to dominate the second half of the season and secure the title.
Newey has won 11 Drivers’ Championship Titles and 10 Constructors’ Titles with Williams, McLaren, and Red Bull Racing. He has worked with Renault, Mercedes, and Honda power units, creating innovative aerodynamic designs that were capable of winning races and championships in both the V8 and Turbo-Hybrid era.