Adrian Newey, the chief designer of thirteen Formula 1 world championship-winning cars and an employee of more than a decade Red Bull Racingbrought back a demotivating spell at the start of the hybrid era in 2014. While Mercedes looked unbeatable, the Austrian team was locked in a deal with Renault which did not provide the best power units.
Newey started working in Formula 1 at March and Leyton House from 1988, but aerodynamicist moved to Williams. There he designed the cars with which the British team won the constructors’ titles in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997. However, he did not feel completely welcome at Williams after 1995 after losing the championship to Michael Schumacher and Benetton. He passed away in 1997 McLaren where Mika Häkkinen was able to write two championships to his name thanks to Newey. Since 2001 he was already looking for a new team for a new challenge and in 2006 he was hired at Red Bull. The energy drink maker won the manufacturers’ and drivers’ championships from 2010 to 2013 with Sebastian Vettelbefore the hybrid era arrived.
Disillusioned
Newey even considered retiring in 2014, demoted by how good the Mercedes powerplant was compared to the Renault engines found in the Red Bull cars: “I was pretty disillusioned with the whole thing at the time,” he began. The race. “To be honest it was so much… Of course I almost went to Ferrari but I didn’t anyway and that was kind of part of it… But more importantly, even though I felt happy at Red Bull and I didn’t I would have liked to change team, the only thing that made me think about moving to another team was that we were stuck with a bad engine.”
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Marketing
“We had a supplier who was more interested in marketing to be in F1 than actually being competitive,” said Renault’s Newey. “If you have a partner who comes with a power unit below the level of the competition, but shows the desire and willingness to move forward, you accept it. If [een motorleverancier] they really don’t see that they’re behind and don’t seem interested in doing anything about it, so it’s a lot harder. This way I lost motivation. I still liked F1, but not like before.”
