Red Bull aero-wizard Adrian Newey compares F1 champions including Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen that drove his cars

Red Bull's Adrian Newey is the only known F1 designer to win the Constructors' titles with three different teams. Ever since he started working with teams on the F1 grid in 1981 with Fittipaldi, the current Red Bull Chief Technical Officer has worked with many gifted drivers.

Before joining Red Bull Racing, Adrian Newey worked with teams like Williams Racing and McLaren-Mercedes. He worked with drivers like Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell from Williams, Kimi Raikkonen, and Mika Hakkinen from McLaren-Mercedes.

Describing his experience working with the Williams drivers, Newey recalled:

“Nigel had huge self-confidence, and a lot of upper-body strength, which in those days with no power steering and lots of downforce, was important. Alain was much more methodical and very articulate and testing was very frustrating because often he wouldn't push himself. So you never quite knew where you were. But when he wanted to, he could turn it on.”

He also analyzed Mika and Kimi's driving skills, saying:

“Mika and Kimi were very different. They didn't say very much but what they did say, you had to take a lot of notice of and interpret what they were saying because they had different ways of putting things.”

Newey moved to Red Bull Racing in 2006. Under his technical leadership, the team climbed the ranks from P7 to P5 in the Constructors' standings. They ultimately won four titles in a row with Sebastian Vettel from 2010 through 2013.

Newey found Sebastian as someone who took the time to understand and go over everything. He called Vettel a "Big Thinker."

Now, as he works closely with two-time world champion Max Verstappen, Newey thinks he is the perfect driver. He stated that the Dutchman's driving styles and skills lie somewhere in between all the drivers that he has worked with so far.

He admitted that the personalities of the drivers he worked with were varied but each of them was phenomenal in their way.

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Adrian Newey's contract to stay with Red Bull has been extended

Adrian Newey's contract was set to expire at the end of 2023. But it has now been widely reported that he has extended it to remain with Red Bull for the near future.

In his interview with Sky Sports Italia, Adrian Newey admitted that he was tempted to join Ferrari more than once. The first time the prancing horses offered to bring him on the team was when he moved from Williams.

The two-times Contructors' Champion has enjoyed the last two seasons. He has also had a flying start to their season in 2023 amidst the new technical regulations that were released early on.

Explaining his thought process, he explains:

“When new rules come out, like in that transition period between turbocharged and normally aspirated engines, I spend a lot of time thinking about what opportunities the new rules give you,”

Given that Red Bull has a highly competitive power unit now, the aero-whiz is more than happy to stay on with the team.