Politics against Red Bull on a level unprecedented in Formula 1

The Milton Keynes-based team is in an extremely close battle for the world championship with rival Mercedes as the two outfits were difficult to separate in the first half of the campaign.

But in addition to the fight on the track, there were also many clashes during the season in which the FIA ​​was pressured to issue technical guidelines on flexi wings, tire pressure and pit stops.

All of these interventions appear to have been against Red Bull, although none of them have made any noticeable difference in performance so far.

But for Newey, who has been part of Red Bull since 2006 and has been involved in all of his championship successes, he says the level of gimmicks behind the scenes was higher than before.

“In many ways, it is a compliment to the team to take us under the microscope from others,” he said in an interview published on the Red Bull website.

“We’ve seen it before, but I can’t remember a time when we saw the same level of politics and lobbying against our car behind the scenes.

“If you look back when we researched aeroelastics in 2010/2011, we may have been constantly on the test bench and adapted to every changing set of rules. We have been here before in the last championship fights with Ferrari, which also included some disputes over the flexibility of the body.

“I never particularly like the war analogy – but it’s a decent analogy and you have to look at every aspect to improve your competitive position.

“That’s the nature of F1 and one of the things that makes it so stimulating, but it’s the frequency and intensity of this year that is very enlightening.”

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Regarding the Flexi-Wing saga that surfaced at the Spanish Grand Prix, Newey said the biggest barrier to cracking down wasn’t performance – it was more the cost associated with strengthening its components.

“If you take the problem with the flexible rear wing, we certainly weren’t the only team that had this problem,” he said.

“But when Mercedes started making noise, of course they weren’t worried about what Alfa was doing. They just worried that we would get an advantage that we really weren’t. But there was a cost to replacing this part, which obviously hurt.

“However, it is great evidence of the depth of our team that we can respond to change and is a great example of how when our team is cornered we can fight and continue to be just as competitive.”