When Adrian Newey joined Red Bull in 2006 he embarked on a journey that would turn the relatively unsuccessful former Jaguar outfit into world champions.
Newey’s influence on their car was almost instant when Red Bull achieved its first podium at the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, following up with podiums in 2007 and 2008.
The team would go on to challenge for the title in 2009 with Sebastian Vettel, but after the headstart made by Brawn GP because of their double diffuser, Red Bull spent much of the first race playing catch up.
The 2010 season would kickstart their four years of dominance with Sebastian Vettel, before going on to achieve the same feat with Max Verstappen in the hybrid era. Newey’s influence was key to all of those titles, and now he has left to join Aston Martin for a new challenge.
Discussing Newey’s arrival at Red Bull 18 years ago at the Cambridge Union, Christian Horner explained how the legendary designer was once confused when sitting in on his first engineering meeting.
Adrian Newey ‘didn’t understand’ first engineering meeting at Red Bull
Newey’s first proper car was the 2007 Red Bull RB3 which achieved one podium at the European Grand Prix and enabled the team to finish fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.
When Newey joined the team, Horner took him into one of the engineering meetings to discuss their car concepts moving forward and recalls a funny story of what happened when they both left the meeting.
“I remember very clearly when Adrian Newey first joined Red Bull and we sat in a technical meeting where there was an exchange between the engineers with how they had come up with the philosophy of the car,” said Horner.
“It was in a language that sounded completely foreign to me, but I felt sure that it meant a great deal to Adrian and that he would be taking a great oversight of what this engineering group were telling him. As we left the meeting I remember asking him “Did that make sense to you?” and he said, “Well I didn’t understand a bloody word of it!”
Adrian Newey to begin work at Aston Martin
Newey’s next challenge will be at Aston Martin where he takes on the role of shareholder and managing technical partner, overseeing the teams technical direction.
He’ll play a key role in shaping their assault on the 2026 F1 regulations, which are set to be a huge departure from the current cars because they will have active aerodynamics and a new engine formula.
Newey begins work at Aston Martin this month, when he will begin work on their 2026 car and have some hand on their developments for 2025.
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