Who is Adrian Newey? All you need to know about F1's greatest car designer

Red Bull's Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey has worked relentlessly behind the scenes to birth F1 cars that rivals find challenging to battle with. The 2023 F1 season witnessed Newey's pencil exercise an unprecedented dominance over the competitors, collecting 21 wins from 22 races in the RB19. However, the story of the Brit's wizardry dates back to 1998.

Newey was born on December 26, 1958, in Warwickshire, England to Richard and Edwina Newey. Unlike his parents, Adrian showed a knack for aeronautics and astronautics and graduated from the University of Southampton in 1980 with a first-class honors degree.

Immediately after passing out, he stepped into F1 for the Fittipaldi Formula One team. However, it was in 1988 that the 65-year-old's first F1 car design was fielded, and it didn't fail to impress the paddock, with Ivan Capelli finishing second in the Portuguese GP in the March 881 car.

The summer of 1990 saw Newey getting fired from the team, following which, the then-director of the Williams F1 team, Patrich Head, locked a deal with him. Adrian Newey's first winning season came in 1992, when his FW15 bagged the constructors and drivers championship with Nigel Mansell. The aero wizard's second title came the very next year, with Alain Prost fielding the FW15C.

Before moving to McLaren in 1997 due to turmoil with Williams, Newey contributed to 59 wins from 114 races and four championships during his seven-year stint with Williams. During his time with McLaren, the cars designed by Newey bagged two consecutive titles in 1998 and 1999, with Mika Hakkinen fielding the McLaren MP4/13.

Later, Adrian Newey joined forces with Red Bull in 2006 and dominated F1 for four consecutive years from 2010 to 2013. In that period, Sebastian Vettel bagged back-to-back world championships and the Austrian outfit clinched consecutive constructors championships.

After the hybrid era concluded in 2021, when Max Verstappen won his first driver's championship, Adrian Newey's design concept once again dominated the asphalt worldwide, raking in the 2022 and 2023 drivers and constructors championships.

The masterpieces designed by the aero wizard have collected a staggering 12 constructors championships and 13 drivers championships, and have amassed over 200 Grand Prix victories.

---

When Ayrton Senna's tragic death eclipsed Adrian Newey's victorious time with Williams

The two constructors and driver championships Newey helped Williams win cemented his place in the organization, and his and Patrick Head's combination became a force to reckon with. However, the 1994 season witnessed the tragic death of F1 legend Ayrton Senna and a turnaround in the Williams paddock.

On lap seven of the 1994 San Marino GP, Senna's Williams crashed into the concrete wall at blistering speed. The Brazilian driver was rushed to the hospital, but was later declared dead. From that point onwards, the relationship between Newey and Head turned sour, with the British designer moving to McLaren in 1997.

During an interview with The Guardian, Adrian Newey opened up on how Senna's death affected him and his relationship with Williams team, saying:

"Little hair I had all fell out in the aftermath. So it changed me physically. It was dreadful. Both Patrick Head [the Williams technical director] and myself separately asked ourselves whether we wanted to continue in racing."

He added:

"Did we want to be involved in a sport where people can die in something we've created? Secondly, was the accident caused by something that broke through poor or negligent design? And then the court case started."