Until the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
So who truly created the last three groundbreaking ground effect Red Bulls?
Has Adrian Newey simply been lending his name and the occasional helpful suggestion while the real work was being done by the talented, but less well-known, group of engineers within the Formula 1 team’s technical division?
Christian Horner has been eager to publicly acknowledge the latter group, specifically praising aerodynamic chief Enrico Balbo. Technical director Pierre Wache is also rightfully proud of the RB18, 19, and 20, creations of his team of design and aerodynamic engineers.
However, it’s not that straightforward. To truly understand the reality, one must comprehend the unique structure of this technical division and Newey’s unique role within it.
It is commonly assumed that he is in charge of all technical matters. This is not the case. Wache is the technical director and reports directly to Horner, not to Newey. Newey has not served as technical director for nearly a decade. He is free to contribute as much or as little as he desires. That’s how Horner convinced him to stay when he was on the verge of leaving last time – along with the Aston Martin Valkyrie supercar project.
Newey contributes to the technical division, as does Balbo, as does chief designer Craig Skinner, head of performance engineering Ben Waterhouse, and chief of car engineering Paul Monaghan. Wache coordinates the programs of the various departments.
Newey is a visionary, not just an aerodynamicist. His instinctive understanding of what makes a car fast, the various sensitivities involved, and how they change over time and with different regulations can be invaluable. Especially during periods of regulation change.
His profound comprehension of car dynamics – not just aerodynamics – has frequently provided the team with quick and effective solutions to what might have otherwise been long-term problems. Unrestricted by conventional thinking or even the contractual obligation to deliver, he is essentially a super-senior consultant. Even if his contract classifies him as an employee.
He is not the person who decides what the car concept should be and gets everyone to follow his lead on that. That is not his personality or his role. He is not leading. He is providing invaluable insights. Whenever they arrive. The others in more traditional roles have the responsibility of ensuring the car is conceived and designed based on the best available information.
When “All F1 teams are large engineering teams, but in terms of involvement in meetings, I offer my input, but it’s the individuals who discuss those ideas and maybe come up with a list and then go and do the work. Specifically, on this car [the RB18], I worked on the front and rear suspension and a few other components.”
That may sound casual, doesn’t it? ‘Oh, the suspension and some other components.’ Yes, but behind that seemingly bland and understated summary was the invaluable insight that cracked the code of the all-new aero regulations of that year.
The RB18’s superiority stemmed from a highly sophisticated underfloor that intentionally sacrificed maximum downforce, as well as a rear suspension with the necessary travel and tricks to tame the porpoising phenomenon that troubled everyone else.
That conceptual foundation was Newey’s, and while the aerodynamicists under the supervision of Balbo likely created the underfloor, the performance indicators used in its creation arose from Newey’s suggestion of the concept with the most potential. He did not insist on that concept, but the preliminary research conducted by the rest of the team following his suggestion found it to be the most promising.
Once that was established, they embarked on the journey. That platform, along with Newey’s suspension, has essentially remained the same through 2023 and 2024, making them arguably the most dominant family of cars in F1 history.
Newey did not design them. He did not even conduct the research. But he set the group of exceptional engineers on an incredibly productive path from the beginning, without any of the floundering seen almost everywhere else.
Would that engineering team have embarked on that path without Newey? Just as the chief scientist who wins the Nobel Prize takes credit for an entire team of unknown scientists, many of whom may have provided critical input that led to the breakthrough. But were they only working in that direction because of the chief scientist’s original intuition?
So the question of ‘who deserves the credit?’ is a simplistic one. It is a deeply holistic process that cannot be answered in simple black and white terms.