A brief (ish) history of Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey is to join the Aston Martin F1 team in March 2025, and history tells us this is seismic news.

It tells us this because Newey is by far the most successful designer F1 has ever known: in a career spanning several decades, his cars have won 12 constructors’ and 13 drivers’ titles. And he isn’t done yet.

In that time his designs have also swept to 532 podiums and 220 grand prix wins. If he was a constructor, he’d have won more races than every single F1 team in history bar Ferrari. No wonder Aston is reportedly forking out £30m a year (and making him a shareholder) to secure his services.

Quite how Newey became the closest thing to guaranteed success in F1 is a long ol’ story, but the abridged version is this: aeronautical engineering degree in 1980, straight into F1 a year later, race engineering in Formula 2, IMSA GTP, CART (now IndyCar) success in the mid 1980s, back into F1 in ‘86 and then hired as chief designer for the March team in ‘87.

And so began almost 40 years of relentless success. Starting with…

1988 March 881 (Podiums: 3)

…Newey’s first ever F1 car, which got him his first ever F1 podium with P3 at the Belgian GP in 1988. It went one better two races later, when Ivan Capelli finished second to Alain Prost in Portugal. A star was born.

1989 March CG891

The 881’s successor wasn’t finished until after the new season had started, and late homework failed to produce meaningful results. A handful of P7s, but nothing else.

1990 Leyton House CG901 (Podiums: 1)

Back in business. Rebranded as Leyton House, the team suffered many retirements and DNQs, but P2 at the French GP was one to savour. Again Capelli was a runner-up, again to Prost, who took the lead with four laps to go. Pain.

1991 Williams FW14 (Wins: 7, Podiums: 17)

Williams hired Newey as its chief designer in 1990, and alongside technical director Patrick Head, it reaped the rewards almost immediately. Riccardo Patrese’s win in Mexico in ‘91 was the first masterminded by Newey, and the team only lost the constructors’ that year thanks to poor reliability early in the season.

1992 Williams FW14B (Titles: 2, Wins: 10, Podiums: 21)

The FW14B made amends in 1992. Nigel Mansell won the first five races and never looked back, as the team stormed to both titles. Looks iconic too, of course.

1993 Williams FW15C (Titles: 2, Wins: 10, Podiums: 22)

One of the most sophisticated F1 cars ever made? ABS, traction control, active suspension, automatic transmission… the FW15C took pole at every race bar one in 1993, propelling the team to a second constructors’ crown and Alain Prost to his fourth drivers’ title.

1994 Williams FW16 & FW16B (Titles: 1, Wins: 7, Podiums: 13)

1994 couldn’t have started worse for Williams: the team was grappling with regulation changes early in the season when new signing and three-time champ Ayrton Senna tragically lost his life at Imola. The Brazilian’s death overshadowed the sport for a long time to come, although the team bounced back to retain the constructors’ title courtesy of Damon Hill’s heroics, plus David Coulthard and Nigel Mansell sharing the other car.

1995 Williams FW17 & FW17B (Wins: 5, Podiums: 17)

Still a highly successful car by any definition, but Benetton and star driver Michael Schumacher were simply a better combo in 1995.

1996 Williams FW18 (Titles: 2, Wins: 12, Podiums: 21)

Order restored itself in ‘96: with Schumacher departing for Ferrari the Benetton challenge faded, and the Williams duo of Hill and rookie Jacques Villeneuve enjoyed a private battle for the drivers’ title. The Canadian’s victory in Portugal was Newey’s 50th in F1.

1997 Williams FW19 (Titles: 2, Wins: 8, Podiums: 15)

Newey left Williams for McLaren before the ‘97 season began, but the FW19 still had significant input from him: he laid the foundations for Williams’ last constructors’ title to date, with mid-season development completed by someone else.

1998 McLaren MP4/13 (Titles: 2, Wins: 9, Podiums: 20)

Installed at McLaren as the team’s technical director, Newey hit the ground running in his new role, turning Mika Hakkinen into a world champion with the first car penned with his, er, pencil.

1999 McLaren MP4/14 (Titles: 1, Wins: 7, Podiums: 16)

‘99 wasn’t quite as successful. Mika Hakkinen retired from five races on which he started from pole, but still retained the title; a host of other retirements meant McLaren lost the constructors’ to Ferrari, however.

2000 McLaren MP4/15 (Wins: 7, Podiums: 22)

And so began a fallow period. By Newey’s standards. The MP4/15 was hardly ever off the podium but an era of Ferrari dominance had begun and there was no stopping it.

2001 McLaren MP4/16 (Wins: 4, Podiums: 13)

The year Hakkinen decided to call it quits. The team once again finished second to Ferrari, which continued to hog the champagne.

2002 McLaren MP4/17 (Wins: 1, Podiums: 10)

Odd year. Crippling reliability meant McLaren either had a car on the podium, or it didn’t finish at all.

2003 MP4/17D (Wins: 2, Podiums: 13)

The MP4/17D started promisingly by winning the first two races of the season, but other teams quickly caught up and as McLaren became wrapped up in development of the MP4-18 - a car so beset with issues that it never actually got to F1 - the team slipped down the pecking order to third.

Image: Sotheby's

2004 McLaren MP4-19 & MP4-19B (Wins: 1, Podiums: 4)

Another tough year. McLaren spent the early part of it either well off the pace or retiring from races altogether, and only the B-spec car put it back in contention.

2005 McLaren MP4-20 (Wins: 10, Podiums: 18)

Imagine winning 10 races and not taking the title. That’s what McLaren did in 2005, claiming the chequered flag more often than Renault but still missing out on the constructors’. Kimi Raikkonen matched Fernando Alonso for wins too, but wasn’t as consistent as the young Spaniard.

2006 McLaren MP4-21 (Podiums: 9)

The first time since 1990 that a Newey-designed car didn’t win a single race, which followed a rocky period in which Newey’s relationship with the team began to fray. Prior to the season the upstart Red Bull operation - led by Christian Horner - sensed an opportunity, and late in 2005 it was announced that Newey would be joining them. Too late to have an influence on the RB2, so his first Red Bull car was…

2007 Red Bull RB3 (Podiums: 1)

… the RB3. It didn’t achieve a great deal, but Mark Webber’s podium at the Nurburgring was the first of, er, a lot of Newey-inspired podiums.

2008 Red Bull RB4 (Podiums: 1)

Another quiet year, made worse by the fact that the junior team managed to score a win (remember a young Sebastian Vettel’s incredible victory at Monza for Toro Rosso?) and so finished above Red Bull in the standings. Oops.

2009 Red Bull RB5 (Wins: 6, Podiums: 16)

That’s more like it. Although, we still find it odd that Red Bull and Newey were beaten to the defining aero-gadget of its time - the double diffuser - by Brawn GP, who so famously won both titles just months after nearly vanishing from the sport. Red Bull - despite scoring a 1-2 in the third race in China - spent the early part of the year playing catch up, but it finished the season with the fastest car on the grid, albeit too late to reel in Brawn.

2010 Red Bull RB6 (Titles: 2, Wins: 9, Podiums: 20)

Here we go, the Vettel Era. Not that we knew it until the very last lap of the very last race, which began with any one of four drivers still harbouring hopes of the title. The young German trailed Fernando Alonso and teammate Mark Webber when the lights went out, but come the chequered flag? “Du bist Weltmeister!"

2011 Red Bull RB7 (Titles: 2, Wins: 12, Podiums: 27)

If 2010 was close, 2011… wasn’t. The RB7 absolutely crushed the opposition, winning all but seven races and making Vettel champion for a second time. By miles.

2012 Red Bull RB8 (Titles: 2, Wins: 7, Podiums: 14)

Consistency in a competitive field (seven different drivers won the opening seven races) meant Red Bull always looked like favourites to win the constructors’, but it wasn’t until it brought a double DRS device to Singapore that Vettel’s bid for a third drivers’ crown really blew up. Boom, boom, boom, boom: four wins on the trot catapulted him into the lead, and crushed Fernando Alonso’s dreams. Again.

2013 Red Bull RB9 (Titles: 2, Wins: 13, Podiums: 24)

Red Bull worked overtime on the RB8 which meant the RB9 was put on ice for longer than Newey would’ve liked, but it made a strong start to the season and then owned the second half of the campaign, in which Vettel reeled off a record nine races in a row. What a way to see out the V8 nat asp era.

2014 Red Bull RB10 (Wins: 3, Podiums: 12)

Oh dear. The new V6 hybrid era began with one team dominating, and it wasn’t Red Bull. Powered by Renault - which had propelled it through the previous four years of success - Red Bull was left kicking its heels with everyone else, waiting for Mercedes to drop the ball. Which it did, occasionally. A young whippersnapper by the name of Daniel Ricciardo picked up three wins for the team, the only non-Merc victories that year.

Side note: this was also the year of horrible F1 noses, and some absolute shockers across the grid made the RB10's hooter look almost aesthetically pleasing. Almost.

2015 Red Bull RB11 (Podiums: 3)

A bad situation got worse. The Renault engine fell behind that of the Ferrari and the team limped to fourth in the constructors’, with very little to show for the season.

2016 Red Bull RB12 (Wins: 2, Podiums: 16)

By this point Red Bull’s annoyance with Renault was so large that the two companies fell out big time, and the engine was rebranded as TAG Heuer to hide the once prosperous relationship. Two race wins all told, including a debut victory for one Max Verstappen. You may have heard of him.

2017 Red Bull RB13 (Wins: 3, Podiums: 13)

Consistently on the podium, consistently behind Mercedes. Still. Red Bull had got into the habit of starting the season slowly, before catching up towards the end of the year as Newey’s brain worked its magic. Podiums aplenty, but no title challenge.

2018 Red Bull RB14 (Wins: 4, Podiums: 13)

Another year of stasis. Verstappen and Ricciardo took each other out in Baku, which Newey responded to by leaving the pit wall visibly and understandably irked. Slowly but surely Verstappen established himself as the lead driver, and mid-way through the season Ricciardo decided he was off to Renault.

2019 Red Bull RB15 (Wins: 3, Podiums: 9)

The turning point. Although we didn’t know it at the time. Red Bull finally managed to break ties with Renault, working instead with Honda: the Japanese engine supplier had made a dog’s dinner of its V6 hybrid early on, but the signs that it had finally started to turn things around were there. The team’s win in Austria was the first Honda-powered victory since 2006.

2020 Red Bull RB16 (Wins: 2, Podiums: 13)

AKA the Covid season. With the action cancelled for months, we were fortunate to see any racing at all in 2020 and the teams were mostly just glad not to be bankrupt. Red Bull’s progress was hidden by the fact that Pierre Gasly - and later Alex Albon - couldn’t hold a candle to Verstappen, so the narrative was always about who was in the second seat.

2021 Red Bull RB16B (Titles: 1, Wins: 11, Podiums: 23)

With money tight, F1 decided to make only minor tweaks for 2021 so the teams didn’t have to spend gazillions on new designs. Except the changes robbed Mercedes of crucial floorspace on its car (costing it downforce) and the result was… the greatest title fight the sport has ever known; Hamilton vs Verstappen was an all-time classic.

2022 Red Bull RB18 (Titles: 2, Wins: 17, Podiums: 28)

In came ground effect aero rules, and there ended Mercedes’ dominance. Replaced by… Red Bull dominance. The new regs harked back to an era of the sport that Newey revelled in, and the result was the RB18; a car that swept all before it after the early challenge from Ferrari had been dealt with. It was fast, predictable and crucially, didn’t bounce its drivers into oblivion. Verstappen defended his crown with ease and Red Bull returned to the top of the constructors’ standings for the first time in a decade.

2023 Red Bull RB19 (Titles: 2, Wins: 21, Podiums: 30)

Newey’s greatest car? The numbers say it’s the most successful in F1 history, so it has to be (and the picture below is a flex, right?). Only bested once across 22 rounds of 2023, the RB19 was utterly peerless, and in the hands of Max Verstappen almost uniquely unbeatable: the Dutchman could have a bad qualifying and start just about anywhere… and still win. One by one, most of the teams ditched their designs - if they hadn’t already - and started copying the one championed by Newey. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, etcetera.

2024 Red Bull RB20 (Wins: 7, Podiums: 14)

And so here we are, the present day. Red Bull revealed a radical update to its concept for the start of the new season, and as Versrappen took multiple victories early on it looked like a repeat of ‘23 was on the cards. But all was not well within the team: allegations made against Christian Horner revealed a wider power struggle between drivers, dads and big cheeses alike. None of that sat right with Newey, so he negotiated an early exit from his contract. His last involvement was in Miami, around about the time Red Bull hit trouble with its car. Coincidence? Hmm.

Newey will start at Aston in March 2025, in plenty of time to shape its 2026 car when all-new regs could shake up the grid once more. What scribblings might find their way into the most famous notebook in motorsport before then?