So before everyone starts yelling at me that he is the greatest
F1 designer to grace the sport and how could I even contemplate the
mere mention of banning him from the thing he is obviously born to
do, please re-read the title, the rest of the article and then make
your judgement. That is all I ask.
A little background first, Adrian Newey was born in
Stratford-upon-Avon in the UK and gained a first (highest
classification of degree) in
Aeronautics and Astronautics from
the University of Southampton. Straight after university he
joined the Fittipaldi F1 team and a year later he moved to F2 as a
race engineer. His first design position was for the GTP sports car
which then went on to win the IMSA GTP title two years running.
Newey then moved into IndyCar design and after several winning
designs returned to formula one in 1986. He first joined the FORCE
team before moving onto the March team followed by Williams,
McLaren and finally in 2005, Red Bull. During his time at Williams
he had to deal with the tragic passing away of Ayrton Senna, who
was driving one of his designs at the time. He is a strong
supporter of safety in F1 and motorsport in general and this
accident is cited by analysts as a major contributory factor
towards this belief.
Newey holds eight constructors championships, more than any
individual driver in the history of F1 ever. Each and every team he
has designed for has done better than expected and he has taken
them to glory.
In his current team of Red Bull, rumours have circulated that
his designs take no consideration to other systems around it and
the team have to retrofit the additional systems around the design
rather than the other way around. This has caused technical
difficulties and is the reported source of the Red Bull's KERS
issues.
In his 'spare' time Newey races in motorsport, most notably the
Le Mans Legend race. He also designs what F1 cars could look like
if there was no rule book. He collaborated with the designers of
Gran Turismo 5 to create the Red Bull X2010 and is currently
designing the Red Bull X2011 which is to reflect Pirelli tyres
instead of Bridgestone to improve further on the aerodynamics of
the car giving it an even higher top speed.
Adrain Newey is one of the, if not the most
successful designer/engineer in F1 history. Every team he touches
has a winning streak, every car he touches seem to cut through the
air just that little bit smoother. Now ask yourself this, is it
fair that one team has this type of talent, which has a monopoly on
the genius that is Adrian Newey? Is it right that whover wins is
decided by the designer behind the scenes before the season has
even started rather than the drivers out on track?
I understand this is the reason we have different teams rather
than all 24 drivers competing in the same car (that would be
interesting for a couple of races but then get very boring) but at
the same time should one team have such dominance in the sport - we
saw it not ten years ago with Michael Schumacher and Ferrari's
dominance in the sport - and it became boring and stagnant. Now
we've got a dynamic sport with Bernie trying to do everything in
his power to keep it that way yet we're now two years into a Red
Bull dominance which will continue for how many more years?
So, I'm not proposing that Newey be chucked out of the sport
that he loves dearly. He is clearly very talented and he has
dedicated his life to his work. That would be mean and unkind to
such a wonderful man, but my proposal is that he works for the FIA
directly. He could design the Pirelli test car (which will push the
tyres to the limit) and head up the regulation division (the people
who make and monitor the rules). He will be able to explain better
than anyone what a part will do and whether it should or shouldn't
be allowed in the sport.
So should Newey basically be punished for being too brilliant,
giving an unfair advantage to whatever team he designs for? Or
should we resign ourselves to the fact that he is just that good
and wait for him to retire from active F1 design to level the
playing field?
What do you think?