• Red Bull news

Newey says Red Bull title is his greatest yet

Fraser Masefield
December 10, 2010 « Hunt says Renault and Proton risk damaging the sport | »

Red Bull's chief technical officer Adrian Newey rates his achievement of winning the constructors' and drivers' titles with Red Bull Racing as the best of his career.

Widely hailed by the F1 fraternity as a genius of Formula One car design, Newey has won constructors' championships with three different teams and his latest triumph of engineering, the Red Bull RB6, has taken his tally of constructors' titles to a magnificent seven.

Speaking to ESPNF1 at the BRDC awards, Newey said it ranks as the most satisfying one to date.

"It is. I was very privileged to work with Williams and then McLaren, two great teams but they had already had the infrastructure and won championships prior to my arrival so my job was very much a design job. Here, I've been with the team more or less from the start in developing the team with everybody, developing the infrastructure, getting the communications working through the team and so it's been a different challenge and a challenge which has in some ways been even more satisfying."

Two of Newey's most innovative innovations in 2010, the blown rear diffuser and the flexible front wing, gave Red Bull a distinct advantage over the opposition and led to rival teams disputing the legality of the devices. According to Newey, however, the fact that other teams stood up and took notice was a compliment.

"It's a compliment but a slightly tiring compliment at the time because it's just extra hassle on some of them. Of course the job of the FIA is to arbitrate so when mud starts being thrown, they have to get involved and so we have to demonstrate the car is fully legal so it's a small distraction but a compliment overall."

The 2011 season brings more challenges to Newey and his team in the shape of understanding how the performance of the new Pirelli tyres will behave whilst designing a chassis that incorporates the adjustable rear wing and KERS device.

"Probably the biggest challenge is going to be to understand the new Pirelli tyres and what exactly is required of the tyres to suit those [KERS and adjustable rear wing]. We've had one brief test on them post Abu Dhabi and I think Pirelli will continue to develop the tyres over the winter and we won't test them again until we come out with the new car over the winter so that will be a steep learning curve.

"Other than that it's just the usual thing. Our philosophy is to keep our heads down over the winter, try and do the best job we can and see where that gets us in the New Year."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
ESPN Staff Close