"He's the guy that can see air molecules": Christian Horner on the inspiration behind Red Bull's first star signing

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has spoken about how he brought Adrian Newey to his team back in 2006 to strengthen the technical aspects. Newey was, of course, one of the best technical engineers and chassis designers out there. Hence, Horner made it his aim to bring in the British engineer.

Speaking on the Secrets of Success podcast, Horner explained how he initially felt that his new team was lacking technical strength compared to others on the grid. Since Horner has always admired Newey's works in the past, he decided to rope in the latter.

"One of the key things for me [that] was missing from the moment when I arrived [in the team] was clear technical direction. And growing up, I have always been a fan of Adrian Newey and the cars that he created from late Leyton House through to Nigel Mansell's Williams to then when he went on to McLaren," he said.

Right after the debut season of the team, Horner managed to convince Newey to join Red Bull. He claimed that Newey could see air molecules, praising his prowess in aerodynamics.

While the rest of the grid did not believe Newey would join a small and new team, the Brit himself wanted to leave his previous team, McLaren.

"I, very early, set my sights on him. Adrian is the best in the business. Technically, he is the guy that can see air molecules. So I made it my target to try and attract Adrian into the team. People did not believe it would happen, but I was able to make that happen. And once Adrian joined [the team], everybody thought, 'okay, these guys really are serious,'" Horner added.

Newey had the most consistent and dominant era of his career at Red Bull. He designed some of the most dominant F1 cars for the team that won several drivers' and constructors' championships.

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Red Bull team boss divulges how he prevented Adrian Newey from leaving for Ferrari

Although Red Bull had a great run from 2010 to 2013, the team started struggling after that since Mercedes started dominating with Lewis Hamilton.

During this time, Sebastian Vettel left Red Bull for Ferrari, and Adrian Newey was about to follow in the German's footsteps. However, Chrisitan Horner somehow stopped the aero wizard from leaving.

Horner claimed on the Eff Won podcast that Newey and Ferrari were extremely close to signing a deal.

"We went from winning ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, four on the bounce, and then a massive regulation change to the engine and our engine supplier completely missed the target," Horner said. "Adrian came very close to leaving, he was within about half an hour of signing [for Ferrari]. I managed to persuade him to stay by saying: ‘We’ll do a road car. If you want to do a road car, we’ll do a road car," he explained.

Ever since then, Red Bull has partnered with Aston Martin, which allowed Newey to work on the Aston Martin Valkyrie, a road-legal car that was designed by the man himself.