Red Bull Racing have pulled off a major coup by securing the services of top Formula One designer Adrian Newey from McLaren. The ambitious team's preparations for the opening race of the 2006 season in Bahrain in March have been further boosted by Newey's arrival, with Red Bull having earlier agreed a deal to have Ferrari engines powering their cars next year. Newey's reputation as an aerodynamicist and designer has been built on his time at Williams, from 1990 to 1997, and then at McLaren. Williams won five constructors' and four drivers' championships with his cars while McLaren were champions with Mika Hakkinen in 1998, with the Finn also taking the drivers' title in 1999. ``Red Bull Racing is delighted to announce today that Adrian Newey will join the team as chief technical officer at the end of February 2006,'' said a brief statement from the Formula One team. Newey's departure is significant blow for McLaren, who won 10 races this year but finished runners-up to Renault. The 46-year-old left McLaren once before in 2001 to join Jaguar, who were subsequently bought by Red Bull last year, but quickly made an about-turn and stayed until now.
WOW!!! Huge blow for McL. Here'a link to a Reuters interview with RB's Christian Horner. http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=motorSportsNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20051108:MTFH94579_2005-11-08_12-10-59_L08650963:1
So RB succeeded where Jag Racing failed. Good for them... But it most probably will be 2007 before we see the full benefits of his presence.
This has got to hurt McLaren-Mercedes big time. I am sure that Ron Dennis has saw this coming and is well prepared for Newey's departure. Especially with Newey's uncertain status for the past two seasons, but still, this has to tip the advantage to the others.
Full benefits yes, but I'm sure he'll have a big word already in the 06 car's development and continuous improvement over the season. Mateschitz continues to impress me. This guy is bold and clever. Here is an interesting thought: What if the Red Bull-Ferrari outpaces the Ferrari-Ferrari next year? Same tires, same engine, but perhaps the better engineer? DC is no Schumacher, but he can be quick.
Actually I could live with it quite comfortably. If Red Bull were to steal the title from Ferrari, then I would have an issue. But as long as Ferrari is dinking around in mid field (this being just a hypothetical) I wouldn't mind if Red Bull chases after McLaren and Renault.
WOW RBR must have thrown some real money his way and made a major investment in design equipment to lure him away.
And he and Newey have years of working experience with each other. Im wondering if the opportunity of designing two separate but equal cars side by side over the season might have been a deciding factor. Now Newey gets to run both side by side which could accelerate development even faster. It could also bog a designer down. Fantastic challenge and opportunity. Seems like an easy decision on his part.
All I can say is what the hell is Ron Dennis doing in letting him go.The team are going to suffer for some time until they restructure.
Apparently he wasn't worth the money... http://sport.guardian.co.uk/formulaone/story/0,10069,1637272,00.html
Considering Mike Gascoyne gets over $9 Mil from Toyota a year, I would say that Newey was worth the money.
well, i won't be surprise to see dc challenging for podiums next season. it would be great, especially after critics wrote him off to retirement last season, after leaving mac. i think he still has that fire. if he can make it to the podium on a regular basis, it'll put younger drivers to shame.
Newey has not been actively involved in the actual design of the McLarens for two seasons now. He has had more of a supervising role, so I'm sure McLaren will not suffer as much as RBR might benifit. Furthermore he only starts in February, just in time to start working on the 2007 car. As an indication of his not so very active involvement this season I saw him racing his GT40 at Silverstone on a Grand Prix weekend (Hungary I believe).
Interesting quote by Newey when he was announcing his departure: My immediate focus is to continue working at McLaren to finalise the new MP4-21 ready for testing in January and its championship challenge in 2006. I thought he would be put on gardening leave or something and not get a look at the new car
Red Bull's Technical director Horner stated, that "having Newey is more important than e.g. getting Schuey". IMHO that's not disrespectful, but realistic for a team that is trying to get out of mid field.
Hi, It will help to refresh F1. Mercedes is too much involved with Mac Laren and Newey felt he could never be free to test new solutions. Bad news for Mac Laren ! Best, Florent
I wonder if Red Bull will keep its current paint scheme on the 06 car. I'm not much of a fan of the one they sported this past season. I'm big on style
