Verstappen underlines importance of Newey: "There is only one Adrian"

One of the most sought-after people in the Formula 1 paddock is not an F1 driver but an engineer. Adrian Newey is of great value to Red Bull Racing, which has long managed to hold onto him despite offers from rival teams such as Ferrari. Max Verstappen explains why Newey is so important to the team.

Newey has not been tempted by offers from other F1 teams and chose to remain loyal to Red Bull, where he renewed his contract last year. Verstappen explains what he values about the Chief Technical Officer but also stresses that there is another whole technical team behind Newey that is just as crucial.

"We have to acknowledge the whole group of people behind it. Because it's not just Adrian, it's the whole group of engineers around him who also do incredible work," Verstappen said in a conversation with Motorsport-Magazin.com.

He continued: "I see Adrian more like this: you have new talents coming up, and then you just have Adrian. He is like a mentor. A lot of them have questions they can ask him and things they can discuss with him. Adrian is 65 now, so you have to recognise the young talent coming up. I find it fascinating to see how they are now fully working together."

"There is nobody like Adrian. That's also the beauty of the fact that everyone is different and everyone achieves success in a different way. So no, you can't replace Adrian, because there is only one Adrian. But it is wonderful to see new talent coming in that he has been working with for a long time. And it's wonderful to see how this talent goes its own way and how we achieve what we achieve," Verstappen said.