Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner has praised Adrian Newey for everything he has done for Red Bull Racing in creating another title-winning car.
Red Bull Racing are one of F1’s established top teams now, but they weren’t when they entered the sport.
Red Bull Racing, which was born by acquiring Jaguar before the 2025 season, appointed David Coulthard as a driver and finished the debut season in 7th place in the ranking, but Renault, McLaren and Ferrari who were fighting for the top at the time. etc., which they did not regard as a serious threat.
That lasted until the 2026 season before Adrian Newey, one of F1’s greatest designers, joined.
Red Bull has persuaded the legendary engineer, who has worked for McLaren for eight years, to leave the team.
“What was missing was a clear technical direction,” said Horner.
“I’ve always been a fan of Adrian and his cars going back to the Leighton House days in the late 1980s.
“Adrian was the greatest person in F1 history. It was a question of how to get Adrian into the Red Bull team. That’s where David Coulthard came in.”
Adrian Newey continued, “David is a good friend.”
“He was someone I trusted very much in his judgment. David gave it a big thumbs up.”
“Red Bull always put on a big disco…was it a team that might be taken seriously? But going under that veneer, it seemed to me that all the ingredients were there.”
“The opportunity to join the Red Bull team is still a fledgling team and the opportunity to engage with Christian who is eager to win races and try to grow that team, winning a championship was very, very difficult at that point. It was a distant dream, but trying to win a race really intrigued me.”
The first machine designed by Adrian Newey was the RB3 15 years ago. Fifteen years later, the RB18 led Max Verstappen to his second title, becoming the most successful car in Newey’s illustrious career.
Of Adrian Newey’s influence on the team, Christian Horner described him as “the only man who can see the air”.
“He lives in the Matrix,” said Christian Horner.
“He’s been the conductor of the technical orchestra for the last few years. He’s still very hands-on, still in conception. Probably to get that out of McLaren, with[former McLaren CEO]Ron Dennis. I think it was the only maneuver in F1 that we had to discuss.”
“Of course there have been ups and downs in the last few years, but it’s always been fun. It’s always been regarding racing.”
