Red Bull and Formula 1 might not have seen Adrian Newey if it wasn’t for Honda partnering with the team to bring their game up after the 2018 season.
Newey spoke to RacingNews365.com about the retirement he was thinking about at the end of 2013 after the team lost their competitiveness from the Renault engine. However, Honda motivated him enough to stay on the field. newey said:
“We can count ourselves lucky that we had a really good run from 2009 to 2013. But to be honest, at the end of ’13, I was quite tired.”
Adrian Newey is one of the most renowned technical gurus in Formula 1. His ways of designing cars since the ’80s have helped many teams win championships, including McLaren and Williams.
He moved to Red Bull in 2006 and his technical knowledge is one of the biggest reasons for the team’s championship success from 2010 to 2013. However, after the introduction of V6 turbo-hybrid engines in 2014, it was hard for the team’s engine supplier, Renault, to keep up with the competition.
Newey is of the belief that the team had built some excellent chasses in those years, but the overall competitiveness of the car was far too low. Hey said:
“After the switch from V8 to V6 turbo engines, our engine partner [Renault] was never really able to build a competitive engine.” “In fact, [I] think we might have had two or three times the best chassis between 2014 and 2020, but we lacked an overall competitive car with which to win a championship.”
According to him, it becomes hard to keep working when it is known that the car is not powerful enough to compete for championships. However, due to the weak engine, the team decided to break its bond with Renault at the end of 2018 and partnered with Honda for the 2019 season.
Newey feels Honda’s partnership with Red Bull ‘changed everything’
After making a deal with Honda in 2019, Red Bull was quite hopeful for the ensuing years. Adrian Newey stated that the possibility of building a powerful chassis motivated him to stay in F1. Hey said:
“That collaboration changed everything.”
Red Bull’s deal with Honda has helped them recently as Max Verstappen secured his first world championship in 2021. Their success followed them up in 2022 with Verstappen winning another championship and the team winning their first constructor’s championship since 2013. The dominating RB18 has also helped the Dutchman win 14 races so far this season (with two races still remaining).
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Edited by Nicolaas Ackerman
