Newey enjoying life with Red Bull Racing

If any confirmation was needed of Adrian Newey’s contribution to how a Formula One team goes about its business, last year’s stunning double championship win with Red Bull Racing is all the illustration needed.

Having taken both Williams and McLaren to the heady heights of multiple title wins in the 1990s, Newey’s challenge, when he joined Red Bull Racing for the 2006 season, was to do the
same for a young team determined to challenge the status quo at every opportunity.

Six short seasons into the team’s F1 adventure and Newey has delivered. Seizing on major regulation changes for the 2009 season, the designer penned a spectacular car that took six wins on its way to second in the Championship.

That radical design paved the way for last year’s RB6 and after nine wins, 15 pole positions and 11 other podium finishes, the mission was complete – the Constructors’ and Drivers’ titles were secured, thanks largely to the designer’s unflinching desire to be the best
and an uncanny ability to exploit possibilities invisible to others.

For Newey, though, the realisation of that dream it is still not enough.

“The motivation to compete and win is still as strong as ever simply because I really enjoy this team,” he says. “We’ve got a great outfit and we have a good atmosphere here. We don’t pretend
to be anything we’re not. We’re a Formula One team that goes about its business of trying to
make the best possible car it can. The team of engineers, indeed everyone, in every department,
is working extremely hard to achieve that. It has a great atmosphere and I find that very refreshing
and very motivating personally.”

All of which means that building a car to meet the challenges of the 2011 season has been an exciting process.

“Preparing for the new season has been an interesting challenge for all of us,” he says. “There have been a number of changes to the regulations and while they are not as comprehensive as the changes for 2009, the major differences – such as the re-introduction of the KERS system and the arrival of a moveable rear wing to aid overtaking – have meant that RB7 is quite different to last year’s car.”

“However, what we have done is taken the philosophy of continuing evolution. We have evolved RB6, which itself was an evolution of 2009’s RB5, and this is, if you like, the third generation of a successful lineage.”