Adrian Newey, Formula One’s star designer, said he was thrilled to be joining Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin next season but expressed regret at missing a chance to work with Lewis Hamilton.
The arrival of ‘the man who can see air’, a genius whose ability to conjure up winning cars from his drawing board has made him one of the highest paid figures in the sport, was announced on Tuesday.
Several teams had been chasing Newey since he decided to leave Red Bull, including Ferrari — the team seven-times world champion Hamilton is joining from Mercedes next year.
“I’ve always had a huge amount of respect for Fernando, and for Lewis,” the 65-year-old Briton told Reuters Television at Aston Martin’s Silverstone headquarters.
“It wasn’t possible to work with both of them, different teams, so I had to choose one.”
Newey, whose cars have so far won 25 drivers’ and constructors’ championships for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, said Spain’s double world champion Alonso, a man he described as a former ‘arch-rival’, was a true great.
“Fernando, I think he’s just a mightily impressive driver and individual. Like me, he’s been in the sport for a long time now, but he still remains fully motivated, and he’s just such a character,” Newey said.
“One thing they all tend to have in common is a lot of mental reserve,” he explained.
“And by that I mean that when they’re driving the car, it feels like they’re only using 10% of their brain to drive the car.
“The rest is going into thinking about what the car’s doing, what they need to do to change their driving style, to change the settings in the car, how the race is developing, where their rivals are, when to push the tyres, when to ease up on the tyres, all those things.
“They have that huge reserve, and that also typically makes them very good at describing what the car is doing.”
Newey left McLaren before Hamilton made his F1 debut in 2007 but the list of champions he has worked with includes Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
“I do have a huge amount of respect for Lewis and what he’s achieved, and again, the way he’s conducted himself,” said Newey.
“I think the way people conduct themselves is such an important thing as well. So yes, I would love to work for Lewis, or work with Lewis rather, and I believe he feels the same way — I haven’t been in any regular contact with him — but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.”
Newey leaves Red Bull after a year in which that team’s boss Christian Horner was investigated and ultimately cleared of alleged improper behaviour to a female employee.
Joining Ferrari would have meant a move abroad but Newey said that element had not been a key consideration.
“All the foreign teams now, their meetings are in English anyway. I think in that sense, it could have been an adventure. It just didn’t quite pan out,” he said.
