The Hindu (Chennai)

Why Adrian Newey’s Red Bull exit could redraw F1’s contours

In a highly complex sport, the 65-year-old design genius — F1’s foremost aerodynami­cist — is the closest guarantee of success. And so while Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari move is seismic, Newey’s departure is much more signi€cant, in terms of its potential e‚ec

- S. Dipak Ragav

Formula One’s silly season usually only buzzes around mid-term, with driver contracts being negotiated during the summer break. But this year, things have been on overdrive from the start.

It began when Lewis Hamilton announced he would leave Mercedes and join Ferrari in 2025. Subsequent­ly, there has been a lot of speculatio­n surroundin­g Carlos Sainz’s landing spot and even some smoke signals of Merc trying to audaciousl­y poach Max Verstappen from Red Bull.

Coming to a boil

But even as all this played out, a more signi‰cant event was brewing under the surface. It concerned the future of Red Bull’s chief technical of‰cer, Adrian Newey. Last week, ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, it was announced that the design genius would leave the team next year.

If Hamilton’s move is seismic in its impact and shock value, Newey’s departure is much more signi‰cant, in terms of its potential e‘ect on the pecking order.

The 65-year-old is arguably the best F1 car designer ever, having won championsh­ips at three di‘erent teams — Williams, McLaren, and Red

Bull — in a career spanning over four decades.

Newey has been instrument­al in Red Bull becoming the force it is. Drivers are the stars of the show, but results in F1 are decided more by the quality of the machinery at their disposal. A Hamilton or Verstappen can probably put the 2024 Alpine or Sauber a few places higher than where they are placing. But those cars won’t win races even in their brilliant hands. The machinery determines 80-90% of a team’s success, the driver brings in the last 10-20%.

More than the engine horsepower and the mechanical platform, a car’s performanc­e potential is determined by its aerodynami­cs and downforce. And in F1, no one understand­s this cryptic art of physics better than Newey, the sport’s foremost aerodynami­cist who has revolution­ised the subject across an ever-changing technical landscape.

It is famously said, tongue-in-cheek, that Newey can visualise airšow over the car and ‰nd the ideal solutions to achieve aerodynami­c e›ciency; such is his command of the subject.

In a highly complex sport with many variables, Newey’s presence is the closest guarantee of success. He played a crucial role in Williams’ dominance of the constructo­rs’ championsh­ip in the ’90s, and his designs powered Nigel Mansell

That old dressing room routine of a cold beverage after the game has been reinterpre­ted in American sport: you don’t pour it down your throat, you pour it on someone unsuspecti­ng.

This relatively recent sports tradition, known as the (1992), Alain Prost (1993), Damon Hill (1996), and Jacques Villeneuve (1997) to the drivers’ title.

Priceless ability

The British engineer is known for his priceless ability to examine a new set of regulation­s and identify which facet of the car will be vital to unlocking maximum performanc­e.

In 1998, F1 moved to narrow-track cars and grooved tyres, and his work in nailing those regulation­s in his ‰rst year at McLaren helped Mika Hakkinen win the titles in 1998 and 1999.

Similarly, in 2009, under a new aero regulation regime, Red Bull jumped from being a lowermid-grid team to one ‰ghting for the title and dominated the sport from 2010 to 2013, as Sebastian Vettel won four titles on the bounce. The team perfected the concept of blowing exhaust gases through the di‘user — an aerodynami­c part in the car’s rear — to generate downforce.

Although Newey has reduced his day-to-day involvemen­t in recent years, he is still the guiding force. In 2022, when the current ground-e‘ect regulation­s were introduced, he fell back on his work in this area in his early years in the sport to ensure Red Bull hit the ground running.

He realised that getting the suspension right would be critical to performanc­e and focused his e‘orts on that. Most teams su‘ered from a problem called porpoising, in which the cars violently bounced on the track, costing lap time and causing discomfort to the drivers. Red Bull managed to mitigate this to a great extent, while a team like Mercedes continues to struggle.

Gatorade shower, involves players dumping a cooler filled with liquid — typically Gatorade on ice, but water and other sports drinks are used, too — on someone high profile to celebrate a big win.

The person being ‘bathed’ is usually the team’s coach, but star players, team owners and

In 2026, a fresh set of regulation­s will come into force, and it will be the ‰rst time Red Bull will approach them without Newey illuminati­ng the path. To add to the challenges, Red Bull will also be building its own power units starting in 2026, which is a huge undertakin­g, considerin­g it is not an original equipment manufactur­er.

Becoming a championsh­ip-winning team doesn’t happen overnight, even with a blank cheque. There are no silver bullets for instant success, and it takes a lot of years to get the structure right. In Red Bull’s case, the period from 2006 to 2008 allowed Newey to put things in place. That foundation was vital to tackling the ’09 regulation­s, which helped it jump to the front of the grid.

The big test now will be to see how robust that structure is without its chief architect at the helm. Recently, it emerged that Newey felt team boss Christian Horner was downplayin­g his contributi­ons in public. Newey hasn’t commented on this, but his wife’s social media posts hinted at it, which seems to have played a part in his decision to quit.

Horner has also been in the eye of the storm this year after a female employee accused him of harassment but he was cleared of wrongdoing after an internal investigat­ion. The situation created a sense of unease in the team, and McLaren team boss Zak Brown even hinted that some Red Bull employees were shopping their CVs around.

The signi‰cant risk, though, pertains to Verstappen’s future. The Dutchman wasn’t happy with what was happening inside the team either. Could Newey’s exit push him over the edge at a time when Mercedes is openly courting him?

It only takes a little for a team to crumble from a position of strength, especially when there is a personnel change at the top. Since Newey’s departure, Williams hasn’t won a title, and McLaren managed just one driver’s title in 2008, which shows how vital he was to those teams. Can Red Bull break the jinx? Only time will tell.

It would be a privilege to work with Adrian. If I was to do a list of people that I would love to work with, he would absolutely be at the top of it

Seven-time world champion

even sports reporters have been doused during victory celebratio­ns.

The tradition has its roots in friendly revenge. Reportedly New York Giants player Jim

Burt dumped a cooler of Gatorade on head coach Bill Parcells after a 1984 win over then NFC champion Washington

Redskins — Parcells had driven Burt hard in training before the game and this was the player getting even with ‘well-intentione­d’ mischief.

While the tradition comes from gridiron football, it’s now common in several sports, as this photograph from a recent baseball game shows.

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