Adrian Newey OBE

Widely credited as one of the most successful designers in Formula 1, and probably the most successful of all. Yet Adrian, with his first-class honours degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Southampton University, first found success in the USA, where his March sports car design won IMSA’s GTP class in 1983 and 1984, and his IndyCar project, the March 85C, won the CART Championship and the Indy 500. F1 was beckoning, though, and by now Newey was at Williams where his design work with Patrick Head underpinned five Constructors’ titles and facilitated World Championships for Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve. Moving to McLaren his car clinched the 1998 Constructors’ title and two Drivers’ Championships for Mika Häkkinen. In 2006 he took his talents to Red Bull Racing, and in embracing development rigour and aerodynamics another astonishing winner was created: in 2010, the RB6 took the Team’s first Constructors’ title. In addition, Sebastian Vettel secured the Drivers’ title, and this dual-pattern was repeated over the next three years in a truly fantastic achievement. After a break Adrian was back to full-time racing activity in 2019 and the RB16 has given two World titles to Max Verstappen in 2021 and ‘22. His ethos of “assisting victory” is explained in his book entitled simply How To Design A Car.