Adrian Newey reveals mastery over infamous red notebook
Adrian Newey revealed the details he used to jot down in his infamous and mysterious red notebook, spotted with him during grid walks.
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Adrian Newey (via Formula 1)
Adrian Newey‘s brilliant understanding of Formula 1 chassis design especially during the ground-effect era granted Red Bull great success. The aero-genius was often spotted holding a red notebook during his walk around the paddock. Amidst Newey’s eminent move to Aston Martin, he revealed the details he jots down in the mysterious red notebook.
Adrian Newey had an observant mind and used to interpret all the minor changes in the rival’s chassis which helped him gain further understanding. The Englishman revealed that it was ‘normal’ to look at other teams and see what changes they made. The 66-year-old revealed that he took the red notebook back to the factory and showed the changes to his team. Red Bull then implemented some changes on their chassis in hopes of improving performance.
It’s normal to try and look at what other people are up to. Occasionally, I will then take this back to the guys at the factory and see, ‘Look. Notice this? Could be worth copying. Let’s try it on our car, see what they are at.’
Adrian Newey told Auto Motor und Sport.
Newey highlighted that he did not simply copy the rival’s ideas and implement them in the chassis but rather tried to draw conclusions. The aero-genius questioned the team’s intent behind the upgrades and checked what they tried to achieve. Moreover, the 66-year-old reassured that the rival team’s end goal or target was more important to him than the process of achieving the target.
Other times, I’m using it more to sort of think, ‘Ok, they have gone down this direction. What are they trying to achieve?’ And then, it’s the target of what somebody might be trying to achieve rather than the specific detail of how they have achieved it that interests me.
Adrian Newey added
Adrian Newey recalled Red Bull’s ‘difficult’ chassis in recent years ahead of his exit
Regardless of Adrian Newey’s brilliant chassis building, Red Bull couldn’t cope with the rival’s development and fell in performance. Newey believes that McLaren and Ferrari developing their car rapidly was one of the major reasons behind the slump.
However, Milton Keynes’ car became difficult to drive in his final years as Sergio Perez faced massive struggles. This struggle in chassis was the reason behind the massive point difference between Checo and Max Verstappen.
Part of it was McLaren in particular and Ferrari as well developing their cars and doing a very good job of their cars, But late in 2023, Red Bull’s car became increasingly difficult to drive, a trend that continued into 2024. Max could handle that. It didn’t suit him, but he could handle it, Checo couldn’t. So we also started, through ’23, to see more of a difference in performance between the team mates, Max and Checo. That carried into the first part of ’24, but the car was still quick enough to be able to cope with it.
Adrian Newey noted.
Red Bull has the major task of developing their chassis for the final year of the ground-effect era in Newey’s absence. Milton Keynes has undergone major personnel change and must find improvement to retain Verstappen. Hence, the coming season will be extremely interesting as Aston Martin might join the championship contention under the aero-genius.
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Aditya Pandya
(1490 Articles Published)