“Not good with numbers but we obviously had a good run!”: Adrian Newey never realised RB-18 is his most successful F1 car ever


“Not good with numbers but we obviously had a good run!”: Adrian Newey never realised RB-18 is his most successful F1 car ever

Adrian Newey

The making of a Championship winner requires an enormous amount of effort from all the different people associated with the winner’s team. And one of the most crucial things that powers up a racer to grab the World Championship title at the end of a Formula One season is–a Championship-winning car. In case of Max Verstappen, his second Championship was achieved because of astronomical efforts from the mechanics of the Red Bull Racing Team to build his RB-18 car. And that car was designed by none other than F1 legend Adrian Newey.

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Newey is one of the most acclaimed engineers in the field of motorsports, with a legacy of brilliant car designs which have brought the Championship win to many F1 drivers’ reach. Although it is not the first time that one of Adrian Newey’s designed cars have succeeded in winning the World title in a season, 2022 is special for the Briton since this year, his creation for Red Bull–the RB-18–is his most successful design till date, as the car has won 14 Grands Prix in a this season till now, with 4 races still remaining.

When Adrian Newey was let in on this fantastic statistical detail, he was pleasantly surprised as he said he never kept tabs on how many victories were achieved by his car. The 63-year-old went on to describe how Max Verstappen‘s performance and overall efforts from the Red Bull team ultimately led to the Dutchman getting his second title in 2022.

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“That’s very rewarding to know”: Adrian Newey reacts to the news that the RB-18 is his most successful design till date

Max Verstappen with Adrian Newey
Max Verstappen with Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey has previously been associated with famous teams like Williams and McLaren, but now, he serves as the Chief Technological Officer at Red Bull Racing. In terms of race wins, cars designed by Adrian Newey, such as the Williams FW18 (1996) has a winning ratio of 75% and the Red Bull RB-9 (2013) has a winning ratio of 68.42% But this year, those numbers have been surpassed as the RB-18 has won 14 out of the 18 races that have been held so far and that accounts for a percentage of 77.77%

Speaking on this, Adrian Newey said, “I’m not very good [with] numbers, but that’s very rewarding to know! We’ve obviously had a good run.” He also spoke about Verstappen’s fierce driving skills which brought the Championship trophy home, “Max has been absolutely superb this year. Obviously in the traffic in Singapore he made a little mistake, but apart from that, he’s made absolutely no mistakes.”

As it stands, if Red Bull manages to win in the remaining races in the USA, Mexico, Brazil, and Abu Dhabi, then the percentage of race wins by the RB-18 would increase to over 81%. This would add another jewel to Adrian Newey’s crown that already boasts 11 Construtors’ Championships and 12 Drivers’ Championship wins.

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