Adrian Newey OBE
Considered by many to be the best car designer currently in F1 and in my opinion certainly rivalling some of the all time greats such as Colin Chapman.
Newey graduated from the University of Southhampton in 1980 with first class honours in Aeronautics and Astronautics. He went on to work for the Fittipaldi F1 team before joining March in 1981.
He was a successful designer from the word go. His first race car design was the March GTP sports car which won the IMSA GTP title two years running. In 1984 Newey design the March IndyCar his design proving highly competitive taking 7 wins including the coveted Indy 500. His IndyCar success continued in 85 with the March 85C taking the title.
Leaving Indycar to move back to Europe and F1, Newey Briefly worked for Force F1 team before rejoining the March team now as F1 technical director. Sadly his cars form declined after some initial promise in the late eighties until he was fired in 1990.
Patric Head wasted no time in snapping up Newey for the Williams Team in 1990 and by the end of 1991 the Williams FW14 was a front running car, on par with the championship winning Mclarens of that year.
In 1992 Newey took his first F1 constructors title with Williams and Mansell took the Drivers title. The winning form of his earlier career was back. 1993 the FW15c again dominated taking another constructors title. The start of 1994 the Williams was off form. Chasing active suspension technology caused the car to behave unpredictably, the drivers hated driving it even though it was fast. Then disaster struck. Sennas death at Imola and rumours of possible manslaughter charges started to cause cracks in Neweys relationship with the team management. Despite this Neweys wins kept coming taking the constructors yet again helped in part by a 2 race ban for Schumacher.
In 1995 Newey had been denied the technical directorship he wanted, this coupled with the loss of both titles to Benetton saw the relationship at Williams get frostier. By the time both titles were won in 1996 Newey had already signed for Mclaren. Frank Williams to this day regrets letting Newey go and with good reason, the Williams winning form was only able to continue for 1 year after Neweys legacy, they have never had such success since.
Unable to influence the Mclaren in 1997 his first car was to be design for 1998. Both titles followed. These would be his last for the next 11 years.
Leaving Mclaren at the end of 2005, Newey took on the challenge of joining a new team Red Bull Racing. With improving form in the constructors with a 7th, 5th, 7th and then in 2009 2nd. The Redbull in 2010 was the car to beat. Newey was back ,with the Redbulls taking both titles from his old team McLaren. in 2011 the RBR totally dominated taking Andrian Neweys Championship wins to an impressive 7 F1 titles and 10 total motors sport titles.
He is a man that has won 1 in every 3 constructors championships that he has designed a car for. The stats speak for themselves.
Considered by many to be the best car designer currently in F1 and in my opinion certainly rivalling some of the all time greats such as Colin Chapman.
Newey graduated from the University of Southhampton in 1980 with first class honours in Aeronautics and Astronautics. He went on to work for the Fittipaldi F1 team before joining March in 1981.
He was a successful designer from the word go. His first race car design was the March GTP sports car which won the IMSA GTP title two years running. In 1984 Newey design the March IndyCar his design proving highly competitive taking 7 wins including the coveted Indy 500. His IndyCar success continued in 85 with the March 85C taking the title.
Leaving Indycar to move back to Europe and F1, Newey Briefly worked for Force F1 team before rejoining the March team now as F1 technical director. Sadly his cars form declined after some initial promise in the late eighties until he was fired in 1990.
Patric Head wasted no time in snapping up Newey for the Williams Team in 1990 and by the end of 1991 the Williams FW14 was a front running car, on par with the championship winning Mclarens of that year.
In 1992 Newey took his first F1 constructors title with Williams and Mansell took the Drivers title. The winning form of his earlier career was back. 1993 the FW15c again dominated taking another constructors title. The start of 1994 the Williams was off form. Chasing active suspension technology caused the car to behave unpredictably, the drivers hated driving it even though it was fast. Then disaster struck. Sennas death at Imola and rumours of possible manslaughter charges started to cause cracks in Neweys relationship with the team management. Despite this Neweys wins kept coming taking the constructors yet again helped in part by a 2 race ban for Schumacher.
In 1995 Newey had been denied the technical directorship he wanted, this coupled with the loss of both titles to Benetton saw the relationship at Williams get frostier. By the time both titles were won in 1996 Newey had already signed for Mclaren. Frank Williams to this day regrets letting Newey go and with good reason, the Williams winning form was only able to continue for 1 year after Neweys legacy, they have never had such success since.
Unable to influence the Mclaren in 1997 his first car was to be design for 1998. Both titles followed. These would be his last for the next 11 years.
Leaving Mclaren at the end of 2005, Newey took on the challenge of joining a new team Red Bull Racing. With improving form in the constructors with a 7th, 5th, 7th and then in 2009 2nd. The Redbull in 2010 was the car to beat. Newey was back ,with the Redbulls taking both titles from his old team McLaren. in 2011 the RBR totally dominated taking Andrian Neweys Championship wins to an impressive 7 F1 titles and 10 total motors sport titles.
He is a man that has won 1 in every 3 constructors championships that he has designed a car for. The stats speak for themselves.
That's a toughie ...
