Adrian Newey on Last Blast

Before the end of this Formula 1 season, Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey will almost certainly have added a 12th Drivers’ title and an 11th Constructors’ championship to his list of F1 honours. Designers don’t get the same recognition that great drivers do, but there’s no question Newey is the Hamilton or Schumacher of his discipline. 

How fortunate we were, in that case, to get an hour and 40 minutes with him to record a Last Blast podcast. Apart from telling us about the six cars that have meant the most to him during his life, Newey also discusses his early years as a racing car designer, making his name in North America, returning to Formula 1 with Leyton House and winning championships with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.

There has been unprecedented success, of course, but Newey has also known failure and tragedy during his time in F1. In this episode he talks frankly about the low points of his career when the race wins and titles didn’t come so easily, and about the death of Ayrton Senna in a car he had designed. 

You will hear Newey discuss his relationship with McLaren boss Ron Dennis and why he didn’t enjoy working at the breathtaking McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, and why he left the team to join Red Bull. Newey says the Milton Keynes squad was the laughing stock of the paddock when he joined 16 years ago – they’re not laughing now, are they?

Newey also talks about the 2021 season, which he says was the ‘dirtiest’ he could remember since the mid 1990s. The episode, exclusively for Ti subscribers, is available here.