Adrian Newey, Chief Technology Officer of Red Bull F1, told RacingNews365.com about Max Verstappen’s unique strengths as a racing driver.
Adrian Newey has worked for champion teams in F1’s more than 30 years of career and has met many of F1’s modern heroes.
The car designed by Adrian Newey brought championships such as Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen and Sebastian Vettel.
At the end of 2021, Max Verstappen was added to the list after defeating Lewis Hamilton in a title battle on the Red Bull RB16B.
“What makes a great sportsman?” Adrian Newey pondered.
“Of course, no matter what the sport, to be a good sportsman, you have to have a unique genetic structure. F1 is the judgment of speed, reaction, balance, etc. It leads to a certain level.”
“Of course, you’ll see some naturally very good drivers, but maybe they can’t do as much as they should, and they see other drivers in conflict.”
“I think Max is one of a combination of both. He obviously has great natural abilities, but he has an inner determination and brilliance.”
Despite his success, Max Verstappen is only 24 years old and is one of the young drivers on the grid.
Adrian Newey is an old-fashioned F1 designer. Data-driven simulation was a very early stage in his first few years in F1. But Max Verstappen’s technical feedback explained that he and his team would be very helpful in identifying and addressing the shortcomings of the car.
“Max is a very good example of a modern driver,” said Adrian Newey about how the role of the driver has evolved.
“Before the days of data recorders, race engineers really had only driver feedback to keep going, so driver feedback and driver feel were very important.”
“Now we have a data logger, so we can argue that it’s not necessary. But in my view, that’s true, and the data logger tells us what the car is doing, but why the car. It’s very difficult to understand what they are doing. “
“That’s where the driver comes in. That’s why his feedback is so important that we’re going to combine the two.”
“Max’s feedback … he doesn’t say’I think the front springs should be stiffened’, but he tells us very exactly what the car is doing, and it’s an engineer. It ’s very important to me. ”
Given the impressive resumes of F1 World Champions who achieved glory with cars designed by Adrian Newey, you might expect Newey to compare and order them in their hearts. do not have.
But Adrian Newway defeated when asked where Max Verstappen was ranked in his eyes against drivers like Mika Hakkinen, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill. ..
“I’m not really drawn to it,” commented Adrian Newey.
“I was fortunate enough to work with the great drivers so far. It’s impossible to rank them A or B. In any case, it’s very difficult to do so. I think it’s unfair! ”
Category: Category: F1 / Red bull / Max Verstappen
