Red Bull’s Adrian Newey is on the verge of retirement, vows to exit Formula 1 just when he is ‘not needed’ anymore
Red Bull engineer Adrian Newey bagged his 200th victory at the Canadian GP, but he let people know that the countdown to his retirement has already begun.
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Adrian Newey via SportsMole
Adrian Newey is a legendary F1 designer and current Red Bull F1 Chief Technical Officer. He was recently on a podium in the Canadian Grand Prix being honored for the 200th win in a car he has designed, and consequently, it was Red Bull‘s 100th F1 win as well. In May, it was reported that Newey has recently extended his contract with the Austrian team. The 64-year-old is widely regarded as the best engineer in F1 with over 13 Championship-winning designs under his belt, and he does not show signs of slowing down. Despite all that, he has recently acknowledged that the “countdown” to his F1 retirement has “realistically” started.
Newey stated that above all the glitz and glamor of his life as an F1 designer who has brainstormed 13 Championship-winning cars, he has always wanted to only fulfill a childhood “dream” of his. Speaking on this, the Briton said: “It’s been an amazing journey. My dream, always from when I was a kid, was to be in engineering and motor racing, so when I got my first job in motor racing and got my first salary, that was really the big moment. Everything else has been a bonus.”
In the early 2010s, Red Bull dominated Formula One, winning four consecutive Drivers’ Championships as well as the Constructors’ Championships. Sebastian Vettel contributed greatly to that Red Bull era, winning all four titles for the Milton Keynes-based outfit. At that time, the RB7, like the RB19, was so powerful that Red Bull teammates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber won 18 pole positions and finished on the podium 27 times–all thanks to Adrian Newey’s designs. That year, the team finished with 650 points, a staggering 153 points ahead of second-placed McLaren.
Redbull’s engineering mastermind Adrian Newey’s exit will orphan the team
When asked about drawing the line to his F1 career, Adrian Newey indicated he had no imminent plans to retire. However Newey did confirm that his time in F1 is coming to an end and the clock has started to tick. Newey said, “I’m lucky enough to be doing what I have always wanted to do and enjoy the job. I’ve loved it. Of course, my career can’t go on forever, realistically, it’s on a countdown. Exactly when that day is, I don’t know.”
When Adrian Newey calls it a day in F1, Red Bull will have a massive challenge to find a suitable car engineer to fill in the shoes of such a legend. But as of now, Dietrich Mateschitz’s team is out of the woods as Adrian Newey has signed a new contract extension with them. He is one of the best designers in F1, if not the greatest. Losing someone with his calibre will create a void that will be not so easy to fill for any team or the sport as a whole.
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Riddhi Mondal
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