Adrian Newey 'Never Satisfied' Even After Successful Season Like 2023

Friday, 22 December 2023 at 23:00

Red Bull Racing chief technical officer Adrian Newey revealed the success of his cars on track does not define his satisfaction with them.

Adrian Newey is one of the most popular CTOs in Formula One. Double World Champion Fernando Alonso called Newey a legend of the sport and stated he would have loved to work with him.

In 2023, the 64-year-old and his team managed to build arguably the most dominant F1 one-car in the history of the sport. On the other hand, the Brit told the Formula For Success podcast he didn't expect RB19 to be so dominant at all.

“"Going into the season we thought this year was going to be really tough. The way it panned out, no one ever expected it. "But the funny thing is, when you're in it, you're just in it. You're looking forward, you're not really reflecting."”

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Even though he broke multiple insane records with the car, Max Verstappen suggested it wasn't perfect as he named multiple aspects that he would like improved. Newey explained he has never been satisfied with the RB19:

“"I've never been satisfied. We've had this fantastic season, broken barriers, records, or whatever. The reality is, there's things with the car that we feel can be improved."”

The chief technical officer elaborated as he said it's not about the success but about observing the weaknesses of Red Bull cars and searching for improvements.

“"So actually you're not really thinking about that [success], it's focusing on things like 'What are the weaknesses? How can we improve that?'”

The only race Red Bull didn't win in 2023 was the Singapore Grand Prix. The problem in Singapore wasn't a bad race strategy or driver error. The problem seemed to be that the circuit just didn't suit the RB19.

That is something an F1 team does not want to see. The team from Milton Keynes has been the most successful in building a car that has been the most versatile overall, but Newey believes Singapore exposed few of its weaknesses.

“"It's why Singapore was the race that we didn't win. It's quite useful for us, because we made a complete and utter arse of that if I'm honest, it exposed some weaknesses in the car."”

The Singapore Grand Prix has probably been the race that Red Bull will take the most learnings from into the 2024 season. The 64-year-old concluded: