Adrian Newey on nearly joining Ferrari twice and Max Verstappen’s strengths at Red Bull – rezal404
Red Bull’s Adrian Newey says Max Verstappen is the “perfect driver” with tremendous natural ability.
Red Bull’s Adrian Newey says Max Verstappen is the “perfect driver” with tremendous natural ability.
Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey has revealed he twice considered joining Ferrari during his career.
Newey is considered as one of the greatest F1 engineers the sport has seen, having designed 13 championship winning cars.
He joined Red Bull in 2006, one year after the team was formed, and has reportedly been made offers to join Ferrari. However, Newey says if he was going to move to Maranello, he would have been in the 1990s.
“I’ve had discussions with Ferrari in the past. I’ve been very tempted because it’s such a legendary brand,” he told Sky Italy. “The time that was most tempting would have been around 1993 and 1997 when I moved from Williams to McLaren.
“That was a very tough choice. At the time, my kids were young and I didn’t know how they would settle in an Italian school. If I was to move to a team that was based in Italy, I would have to move to Italy with the family.
“Now at Red Bull, I have been involved with more or less since the start, moving teams is always a huge workload to re-establish yourself and get the working practices, so honestly, if I was 20 years younger, maybe.”
Carlos Sainz speaks to Adrian Newey ahead of the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP
Newey on F1 drivers he’s worked with
Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen have all won titles from Newey-designed F1 cars.
From Mansell’s triumph in 1992 to Verstappen’s second world title in 2022, Newey has remained an engineering constant in the sport through multiple generations.
“Those drivers are all so different from each other. Nigel had huge self-confidence, a lot of upper-body strength, which in those days with no power steering and lots of downforce was important. A fierce competitor out on track.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen joked with his engineer over team radio after hearing a phone ring during second practice!
“Alain much more methodical, very articulate and testing was very frustrating because often he wouldn’t push himself. So you never quite knew where you were. But when he wanted to, he could turn it on.
“Mika and Kimi were very different. They didn’t say very much but what they did say, you had to take a lot of notice of and interpret what they were saying because they had different ways of putting things.
“Sebastian was a big thinker, long debriefs and spent a huge amount of time going through everything. Max is more in the middle. So very different characters but all phenomenal in their own right.”
Despite winning his 40th race in Formula 1 at the Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen insists he is not focused on breaking records in the sport
Newey: Verstappen is the perfect driver
Newey spent a period of time working on projects outside of F1 between 2016 and 2020, but returned to full-time engineering with Red Bull ahead of the 2021 season, when Verstappen won his first world title.
Verstappen said it was “great news” when Christian Horner told Sky Sports Newsthat Newey will stay at Red Bull beyond 2023.
Asked if he thought Verstappen was the perfect driver, Newey answered: “I think he is. He’s got tremendous car control and natural ability.
Verstappen had no trouble in securing his fifth win of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix, with the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell completing the podium places
“He came in, maybe made some mistakes early on because he was pushing so hard, but now he’s really smooth and drives absolutely to the limit of the car, but within that he’s very thoughtful.
“He has a very good feeling from the tires, we have seen that in several races over the last two years. He really has a good feel with how to use the tires. With the tire behavior, that’s such an important factor now.”
F1 returns to Canada from June 16-18 with all sessions live on SkySports F1including race coverage from 5.30pm on Sunday June 18
