How did Newey keep assisting Red Bull via email and phone calls?
Red Bull's star designer Adrian Newey has revealed that the 2021 Formula One season has been the most difficult year of his decorated motorsport career.
Adrian Newey announced his shock departure from the reigning world champion team Red Bull at the start of May. The star engineer, who has designed championship-winning cars for three outfits, continued to attend races, but he ended his active involvement in the team after finalizing and launching Red Bull's hypercar, the RB17 at Goodwood.
Newey is yet to confirm his plans as rumours continue to swirl regarding his next Formula 1 stop. Although he is heavily linked to Aston Martin, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari have also been mentioned as a possible destination for the 65-year-old designer.
Speaking in Red Bull's podcast, the Talking Bull, Newey reflected on the moment he elected to leave McLaren and join Red Bull back in 2006.
"I thought, well, it's a big challenge. It's a huge career risk, but one I feel up for. And so when I started, really, it was with the aspiration and hope that at some point we could win a race."
He fondly recalled the team's first major victory with Sebastian Vettel at Toro Rosso in Monza in 2008 and the German's triumph with the Milton Keynes-based outfit at Shanghai next year.
"So kind of when we won that first - well, we won the race with Sebastian in his Toro Rosso in Monza in 2008 - in China was in 2009 was quite a landmark.
"And then and then going on to that last race in Abu Dhabi. 2010 and winning the championship against the odds with Sebastian's drive that weekend and Ferrari's mistake on the strategy. That was something I'll never forget."
However, every high has its counterpart. Red Bull dominated with Vettel for four years, but the introduction of the hybrid engines saw Mercedes took over the reign. However, the Austro-British squad terminated its engine contract with Renault and teamed up with Honda, and quickly found its way back to the front.
"Then we had to do work and stuff, but managed to manage to keep going and got that one and then, of course, 2021, which is, I think will be talked about for many years. Forever, probably. Yeah. And it was, I think of all my years in motor racing, that was the most difficult year."
Having announced his departure from Red Bull at the beginning of May, Newey still continued to attend select races, but he did not have access to the team's future developments.
However, with Newey having started the design project of Red Bull's hypercar, the RB17, the Briton agreed with the shareholders of the company to remain with the team in the background to finalize the car that churns out 1200 horsepower from a V-10 hybrid powertrain.
"After I’ve officially stopped with Red Bull, [there’s] very much an agreement with Christian [Horner], with the shareholders, all the senior people at Red Bull that I will continue to be involved with [the RB]17, on email, on phone calls, dyno tests when we start dyno testing, track testing," Newey explained on the team's Talking Bull podcast.
“I’ve put too much into this car now as a passion project, much in the after hours, evenings, or weekends, to walk away from it at this point," recalled Newey.
