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Newey gets more plaudits from Red Bull staff: 'He is irreplaceable'
- Ludo van Denderen
These are statistics others can only dream of. With Red Bull Racing alone, Adrian Newey managed to win 13 world titles; seven in the drivers championship (Sebastian Vettel 4x, Max Verstappen 3x) and six in the constructors championship. The master designer is now 65 years old, and involved in many other projects, but remains invaluable, according to the Austrian team.
The Brit is and will remain involved in designing the cars, to the satisfaction of technical director Pierre Waché. "He’s irreplaceable, yes – you cannot replace him!" he told Motorsport.com, indicating that Newey is not involved with the race cars on a daily basis. "He’s more coming from the side and trying to help us or challenge us on different aspects of the team – it could be mechanical design, aero or vehicle dynamics."
Newey likes to challenge others
According to Waché, Newey is mainly a sounding board at the moment, someone around whom team members bounce ideas off. "And after, he’s challenging us. I tell you I would say more challenging than [agreeing]," laughed Red Bull Racing's technical boss.
Within Formula 1, Newey is unique. He has been working for Red Bull Racing for almost 20 years, and before that, he was at Williams and McLaren. At those teams, he was also successful. Waché, therefore, thinks Newey is "the most experienced on the entire F1 grid in terms of engineering".
How long Newey will work at Red Bull is unknown. He may retire, but there are no indications that the Briton will part ways with the most successful F1 team of the moment any time soon.
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