“Looks smooth on the top, but not so much underneath,” Adrian Newey exposes Red Bull’s ‘frantic’ condition
Adrian Newey has spoken out about Red Bull's troubles even though the general perception is that they are an invincible team.
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After a long wait since 2013, Red Bull managed to get their star racer Max Verstappen to the very top of the Championship Standings in 2021. The Dutchman, who was just a newbie aiming for an ambitious debut title win, went up against seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and came out victorious. But that was two years ago. Now, Red Bull have established themselves as the dominant force in F1, with a Constructors’ Championship win last year. But their Chief Engineer Adrian Newey has reckoned all that shines at the Red Bull HQ in Milton-Keynes is not gold.
As of now, Red Bull are leading the points table and they are well on their way towards a second consecutive Championship win. But according to Adrian Newey, the British team has had their fair share of troubles. And although it might seem like Red Bull is invincible in the face of their heavyweight opponents like Mercedes and Ferrari, the truth says otherwise.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez–the two recruits at Red Bull–have already achieved great results this year by winning all five of the Grands Prix that have been held till now. This has created the public perception that Red Bull is the most powerful team of this season, but Adrian Newey has admitted they have had to overcome “lots” of obstacles to reach here. He said, “It’s the old duck paddling frantically, it might look smooth on the top, but it’s not been so smooth underneath.”
Adrian Newey elaborates on how Red Bull overcame reliability concerns
Last year, at the season opener in Bahrain, reliability turned out to be Red Bull’s biggest enemy. Both Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen had finished in the last two positions in the grid. This season, they have made sure to eliminate any of those concerns by working on their car.
Newey commented, “We had a few reliability concerns coming out of the Bahrain test, so there’s always things that kind of you’re always worrying about things. Reliability, performance as well. Melbourne, we struggled to switch the tyres on, particularly on Friday. Got a little bit more on top of it by qualifying, but it certainly wasn’t an easy ride.”
In other news, it had been rumored that Adrian Newey might be taken up by Ferrari in the upcoming seasons. But, putting all those conspiracy theories to rest, the 64-year-old signed a new contract with Red Bull which secures his future with the reigning Champions for the foreseeable future.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)