Last Updated on September 12 2024, 11:06 pm

Adrian Newey is free from the shackles which held him quiet during his time at Milton Keynes and it appears the guru F1 engineer wants to get a number of issues off his chest. TJ13 reported earlier this week that Newey believes Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton were damaged “physiologically” by the last race, last lap victory of Max Verstappen in 2021.

The new Aston Martin partner for technical engineering claims Mercedes could not shake the disappointment from this loss in Abu Dhabi which then affected they team’s ability to ‘reset’ and get back to work as normal on “Monday morning.”

TJ13 also reported yesterday that Newey accused the FIA of failing to do their job properly during the 2021 season and investigate a number of parts on the Mercedes car which Red Bull believed were illegal.

 

 

 

Newey getting ‘bored’

Newey has also revealed he was getting ‘bored’ at Red Bull Racing and the free roaming role the team had designed for him did not bring the fulfilment he thought it would. He also described the team left in Milton Keynes as “mature” and needing less his time and interventions.

Sebastian Vettel was a beneficiary of the Newey F1 design process when he became quadruple world champion in consecutive years between 2010 and 2013. Max Verstappen is on the verge of of repeating the German’s feat although McLaren have now decided to ‘favour’ Lando Norris in his pursuit of the 62 points required to even it up with Max.

Both Vettel and Verstappen have experienced a mixed reception from the British F1 audience with Sebastian repeatedly booed in his final season each time he gave the winning one finger salute.

Verstappen too has been give the Joe Root salute, often when standing on the top step f the podium while Lewis Hamilton is beneath him. Adrian Newey believes the British media portray a biased view of certain drivers as well as playing their part in the building of the cult following of Lewis Hamilton. In fact the new Aston Martin chief has labelled Sky Sports’ coverage of Formula One as “nationalistic” supporting Mercedes in recent years as they are the home of British driver Lewis Hamilton.

Newey: “There was arrogance at Red Bull”

 

 

 

Newey accuses Sky of “demonisation”

Newey attributes the “demonisation” of both Vettel and Verstappen to the British broadcasters coverage of F1 which is transmitted to English speaking territories around the world. “I think from the outside I’m not sure people fully appreciate and understand Max, just like they didn’t with Sebastian,” Newey tells the High Performance Podcast.

“First of all, there’s this sort of demonisation both of them suffered at times, which I think is very unfair, and maybe that’s also a little bit of the British media if I’m honest.”

Adrian continues stating: “Sky have a huge influence around the world, their viewing is truly international, but their coverage is quite nationalistic dare I say and that can have an influence.

“It’s this thing that now with journalism typically – there is that trend to sort of either put people on a pedestal or knock them down.”

All hope for Schumacher lost

 

 

 

Verstappen immense “processing power”

Of course the 24/7 scrutiny of all things Formula One is part and parcel of making the sport truly global. And national publications cater for their readers whose preferences are often to support the competitor of the same nationality.

Yet Newey continues to explain the processing power that Verstappen has, which he believes is ‘fascinating.’

“I think that he’s very intelligent and it almost feels as if he can drive the car automatic,” Newey added.

“He doesn’t, of course, but he can drive the car and has so much processing power left over that he can then think a lot about how he’s driving the car, how he’s looking after the tyres, what he might need to do on the settings… reading the race. It still fascinates me.

Newey critical of Hamilton and Wolff

 

 

 

Mclaren naval gazing ends

Meanwhile McLaren have finally emerged from their two weeks of soul searching having started the grand Prix in Monza 1-2, yet by the end of turn four, Piastri had taken the lead from Norris. As a consequence this allowed Charles Leclerc through into P2 and from their the Ferrari driver went on to win the race.

The team have dropped their insistence on the “papaya rules” which favour neither driver and allow them to race each other fairly on track. This has cost Lando Norris at least ten points in the last four races and his 62 ;points deficit to Verstappen could have been just 52 with eight race weekends remaining.

Even so getting Lando over the line is no simple task and with 232 points yet to be claimed everything is up for grabs in the drivers’ championship and McLaren as a team are now just eight points behind Red Bull in the constructors’ title race.

“The overall concept is we are incredibly determined to win, but we want to win in the right way,” Stella told BBC Sport. “We (will) bias our support to Lando but we want to do it without too much compromise on our principles.”

Sacked from F1: Logan Sargeant next move

 

 

 

Piastri will play second fiddle

“Our principles are that the team interest always comes first. Sportsmanship for us is important in the overall way we go racing. And then we want to be fair to both drivers.”

Prior to Monza the “papaya rules” may have been prejudicial to Lando Norris but they had not conflicted with the interests of the team. The Italian Grand Prix changed all that when what should have been a fairly safe McLaren 1-2 became a Ferrari win with the two despondent drivers from Woking wondering how it had all gone so badly wrong.

“The team interests comes first and these are the situations that above all we need to fix because eventually, as a matter of fact, the way we entered the race in Monza left the door open (to) this situation,” said Stella.

The former Ferrari engineer said both his drivers had accepted the situation despite rumours Oscar Piastri has a joint ”No.1” billing in his contract.

Red Bull trouble: Verstappen makes BIG announcement

 

 

 

Newey accuses FIA of improper Mercedes scrutiny

Formula One has changed beyond recognition over the past twenty years with the FIA (formally known during the Schumacher years as the ‘Ferrari International Association’) becoming far more professional in its approach to governing the sport.

Back in the day, there was little technical expertise in the French based organisation and the scrutineering of the cars for legality was often instigated by the teams. If it was suspected another competitor was running illegal components, a team would protest to the FIA and they would look into the issue.

Of course this created animosity amongst the team which make the spats between Toto Wolff and Christian Horner seem like handbags at dawn… READ MORE