adrian newey thesis ground effect

Adrian Newey: Art, Physics … Speed

Adrian newey is probably the most successful racing car designer ever, winning championships with three different formula one teams, including red bull racing, where he has been chief technical officer since 2006. here he talks with brunswick’s anita scott.

“For me, Formula One design is a blend of art and physics. You come up with fresh ideas, novel solutions, from the artistic side of the brain. But if they fail in the wind tunnel, you have to discard them.”

“Since I started my career with a small independent, it is very much unfinished business for me – going back to an independent team and seeing what we could achieve.”

“The only things that count are the speed and reliability of the car. There is no premium on styling.”

“When I was 15 I used to race on the local track. But very quickly I became more interested in trying to make the car go faster by modifying it.”

“You can come up with two solutions that are aerodynamically identical. At that point, if one looks slightly more attractive than the other, then you go with the more attractive-looking one.”

“The cars are covered with hundreds of sensors and data recorders, and dozens of gigabytes of data are gathered each time the car runs. But if the car is handling poorly, you won’t see from the data what the car naturally wants to do, because the driver will adjust his driving style to compensate. So trying to match the data with what the driver is saying, that’s the key.”

“Dietrich Mateschitz, the Red Bull co-owner, is passionate about motor sport. And it’s good for business. When we won the British Grand Prix for the first time in 2009, Red Bull saw a clear increase in sales.”

“Red Bull purchased the assets of Jaguar Racing in 2004. There had been a lot of hiring and firing … that gave rise to a blame-type culture where people would rather do nothing than do something risky and get the blame if it didn’t work. We tried to break that down, to encourage people to explore, take risks, try different things ... be creative.”

“One of the things we did pretty quickly was get all 130 engineers into one big, open-plan-area in the factory and arrange it to encourage communication.”

“We do not restrict the flow of information between departments – this means a more creative and positive atmosphere around the factory. It’s important that people feel valued and involved in what’s going on.”

“I’m probably the last guy in the industry still using a drawing board. I often start with a pencil sketch and then it’s just A4 paper, developing it on the drawing board.”

“In many ways, design is like a language. Getting ideas from my head on to paper – and then I’ll communicate them to the rest of the company.”

“I prefer verbal communication. You don’t need an e-mail that goes two feet across the desk to the person sitting next to you.”

“We probably have about two hours’ worth of meetings a week. But only if there’s a well thought out agenda – and only if we think it will breed ideas.”

“My drawings are scanned in. They tend to be pretty accurate – I draw to within about half a millimeter or so. Then if it is to be manufactured, we use computer-controlled machinery. Or it may have to be evaluated in computational fluid dynamics – which is aerodynamics by computer simulation.”

“Quite often there are philosophical decisions to be made in terms of coming up with solutions that are elegant, ones that might initially be less efficient than other more brutal solutions. If it’s elegant, novel – then ultimately there can be more development potential than with the brutal solution.”

“During a normal week at the factory, I probably spend half my time wandering round, talking to the engineers. The rest of the time, I spend standing at my drawing board.”

“Ultimately, it’s just about speed.”

“One thing that worries me is the trend to make the regulations ever more restrictive year on year. If that continues, eventually the cars will all look the same, and indeed will be the same.”

“At the end of the day, Formula One is a show. And people don’t turn it on because they’re interested in the technology or the cars or the design – they’re watching for the entertainment, for escapism. I think the important thing for Formula One is that it continues to put on a good show.”

“In terms of the sort of people I admire from the past within motor racing, I would say Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus, and Gordon Murray [of Brabham and later McLaren], both of whom came up with some very creative designs. And another chap, Jim Hall, responsible for Chaparral in America.”

“Success in Formula One tends to be cyclical – if you go back to the 1960s it was the big manufacturers such as Ferrari, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo that were dominant. Then independent teams started to be successful – then manufacturers again. Now the independents are back. If you have a good budget and a good engine, there is no reason why you shouldn’t do a good job.”

Adrian Newey

1977-1980 Studies aeronautics and astronautics at the University of Southampton and writes thesis on ground-effect aerodynamics, which immediately lands him job with Fittipaldi Automotive.

1982 Joins March Engineering, designs the March GTP car which wins two consecutive IMSA titles.

1984-1986 Designs the cars that win Indianapolis 500 and CART championships in 1984, 1985 and 1986.

1986 Returns to CART as race engineer for Mario Andretti. Rejoins March, becoming technical director when Leyton House takes over the team.

1990 Joins Williams as chief designer. Williams-Renault is the dominant force in the 1990s, winning 58 grands prix, four Drivers’ and five Constructors’ titles

1997 Joins McLaren, takes Mika Häkkinen to two world Drivers’ Championships.

2006 Joins Red Bull Technology.

2009 Red Bull takes six wins to grab second in the Formula One Constructors’ Championship. Sebastian Vettel also places second in the Drivers’ title race.

2010 Red Bull drivers Vettel and Mark Webber land nine wins to take the Constructors’ crown. Vettel claims the team’s first Drivers’ title.

2011 Vettel secures the Drivers’ title in Japan and Red Bull wins the Constructors’ Championship in South Korea, with three races still to go before the end of the season.

Anita Scott is a Partner in Brunswick’s London office. She loves classic cars.

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Special Newey project that birthed RB19 MONSTER and massive Red Bull F1 advantage

Since the dawn of car racing, it’s been all about the drivers. Of course it has. Swashbuckling heroes who drive superfast supercars at death-defying speeds in the name of sport are naturally going to be the centre of attention. It is about them. And remains so.

But in 21st-century Formula 1, an alternative hero has emerged. Not sexy, not heroic, but studious, highly qualified and with an eye for detail usually associated with those other heroes who undertake life-saving surgery.

The engineers and scientists have always been there, designing the cars that the swashbucklers then proceed to drive at breathtaking speeds, but we knew little about them. We didn’t need to and, in many ways, didn’t want to.

But on Sunday, during Sky Sports' coverage of the Spanish Grand Prix, Martin Brundle, in conversation with David Croft, made a comment that perfectly, and accurately, captured the higher profile role played by today’s F1 eggheads.

They were discussing the contract extension recently signed by Adrian Newey to keep him at Red Bull.

"Christian Horner is going to hate me for saying this, but whatever the best-paid driver is worth, Adrian Newey is worth even more."

READ MORE: Why Adrian Newey is the BEST and WORST thing to happen to F1

And who could argue?

Without the involvement of Newey, it’s unlikely that Red Bull would have a stranglehold on the sport that has led to a 129-point lead in the 2023 Constructors’ World Championship after just seven races. Without Newey, it’s unlikely that Max Verstappen would be crossing finishing lines nearly two kilometres ahead of his nearest rival.

The changes in regulations that came into effect in F1 in 2022 played squarely into one of Newey’s biggest strengths, namely the new ground-effect floors.

There were other significant regulation changes, like a simplified front wing, a sharp new rear wing and 18-inch tyres with wheel winglets, but it is his expertise around ground effects that has elevated Red Bull to another level.

To help understand why Newey, above all of the other highly experienced and qualified engineers in the F1 paddock, was able to grasp the intricacies of this new concept quicker than his competitors, it’s worth re-visiting his route into F1.

The Southampton (Ground) Effect

It was at the University of Southampton in 1980 that Newey graduated with a first-class honours degree in aeronautics and astronautics and it was during this time he first worked on the phenomenon known as ground effects.

He told Auto Motor und Sport: “I studied ground effect as an aerodynamic phenomenon at university, and the subject of my last project during my studies was its application to motorsport.”

Little did he know at the time the role that piece of work would play in his professional career some 40 years later.

Upon leaving university, he was offered an internship by the Fittipaldi Formula 1 team but just a year later joined the March team where, after a short spell as a race engineer, he started designing race cars.

His magic touch was obvious from the very beginning and for two years running his March GTP sports car won the IMSA GTP title.

His meteoric rise through the motorsport ranks was underway with his next stop being at March’s Indy Car team, where his March 86C won the Indy Car World Series title and the Indianapolis 500.

In 1991 he moved to Williams where, over a five-year spell, he enjoyed continued success but also experienced tragedy.

Mixed fortunes at Williams

While working alongside Patrick Head, Newey’s Williams’ record read 59 race wins, 78 pole positions and 60 fastest laps from 114 races, but the tragedy came in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix when Ayrton Senna, driving the FW16, crashed and died.

In the years that followed, Newey and several other members of the Williams team were charged with manslaughter; charges for which they were initially acquitted and then, following a re-opening of the case, granted a full acquittal in May 2005.

In 1997, he moved from Williams to McLaren , where he stayed until the end of 2005. It was a spell of mixed fortunes by Newey standards, with two driver world titles, in 1998 and 1999, and the constructors’ title in 1998, but in the early-2000s they struggled to compete with Ferrari in the era of Michael Schumacher.

The internal politics of F1 made for a turbulent spell for Newey, with McLaren boss Ron Dennis continually denying that his chief engineer was on the verge of leaving the team, but finally it happened in February 2006 when the overtures of Red Bull proved too great to resist.

The Red Bull years

Newey’s early years at Red Bull were unremarkable, not helped by the fact he was working on a car he hadn’t designed, but the signs were ominous for the rest of the grid when they finished second in the 2009 constructors’ championship with a car that appeared to be improving race by race.

With Sebastian Vettel as their number one driver and with Newey churning out lightning fast and reliable race cars – the RB6, RB7, RB8 and RB9 – they went on to complete the driver/constructor double for four consecutive seasons, from 2010 through to 2013.

Seven championship-free seasons were to follow for Newey and Red Bull as they struggled to match the power and speed of the Mercedes driven by Lewis Hamilton and, for one season, Nico Rosberg, but by 2021 the gap had been closed sufficiently for Verstappen to clinch the drivers’ title amid the controversy of Abu Dhabi at the final race of the season.

Then followed the specification changes. In particular, the one that landed in the dead centre of Newey’s sweet spot.

That final project, undertaken at Southampton, where he examined, in minute detail, ground effect and its application to motorsport suddenly made sense.

The upshot is that Red Bull are currently two or three steps ahead of their closest rivals at every turn and have put themselves in a position where it’s conceivable they go on and win every single race of the 2023 season.

Quite how they will fare when the day comes for 64-year-old Newey to call time on his career is one for Christian Horner to worry about, but Brundle was right.

It boils down to the quality of the car and, whatever your view of them, Red Bull know a good thing when they see it.

Whatever they decided to pay Newey in his new deal, it’s not enough.

READ MORE: Who is Helmut Marko? The genius behind Red Bull rise to power

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How Adrian Newey’s incredible F1 mind fixed Red Bull’s porpoising issues

Adrian Newey in the Red Bull garage. Miami, May 2023.

Adrian Newey referred back to a key early lesson from his Fittipaldi Automotive days to rid Red Bull of their bouncing issues with the very first upgrade.

The new regulations for 2022 marked a huge shift in the challengers gracing the grid as Formula 1 returned to ground effect aerodynamics, an era which has been aced so far by Red Bull with Newey at the helm of the design team.

The RB18 already set an incredible standard with 17 grand prix wins out of 22, a level of dominance only taken to new heights in F1 2023 with the RB19, Red Bull having accounted for 15 of the 16 victories so far this season.

Adrian Newey set Red Bull course with swift porpoising fix

A key sticking point for several teams at the start of this new regulatory era was a bouncing phenomenon known as porpoising, a characteristic which held Mercedes back in particular with their W13 through the first half of the 2022 campaign.

For Newey and Red Bull though, only one upgrade was needed for the opening race in Bahrain to make porpoising a non-factor.

Asked during the Beyond the Grid podcast whether they knew the RB18 was “born well” after just 10 testing laps, Newey replied: “Yes, we did.

“We had an amount of bouncing, not as bad as the other teams, but we still had some bouncing which we needed to get on top of, and I think had a reasonable understanding of what we needed to do to do that.

“So come the first upgrade we had for the Bahrain race, then bouncing was much less of an issue than it was for other teams.

“And that meant that we didn’t have to put a lot of our development energy into fixing bouncing, such as Ferrari and Mercedes did.”

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Ground effect aerodynamics actually formed the basis of Newey’s university thesis, and were present in the series when he took his opening steps.

And it was a “very early lesson” learnt with his first team, Fittipaldi Automotive, which helped him assure that porpoising did not become a long-lasting issue for Red Bull.

Newey would discuss how a weight-saving idea backfired on Keke Rosberg’s car and proved that mastering ground effect aerodynamics goes beyond just optimising the aero side.

Asked if his knowledge of porpoising was something he had from “back in the day”, Newey replied: “Well, funnily enough, it was to an extent in as much as I very clearly remember Fittipaldis [Fittipaldi Automotive].

“And Harvey Postlethwaite, who was the the technical director there, because the cars were running so stiff, he had the idea to save a bit of weight by throwing away the front dampers and springs and replacing them with bump rubbers, which is something he tried in his Hesketh days.

“I remember Keke Rosberg coming past on the old pit straight at Silverstone and the front wheels are in the air as he came past it’s bouncing so badly, and I think that was a very early lesson that this isn’t just about aero, it’s also the coupling of aero and suspension.”

Red Bull retained the Constructors’ Championship for F1 2023 courtesy of Max Verstappen’s victory last time out at Suzuka, as the Dutchman closes in on his third World Championship in as many seasons.

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The cars of Adrian Newey

In the summer of 2014 Adrian Newey signed a new contract with Red Bull Technology ending rumours of him switching to the troubled Ferrari team. But this new contract was really the end of the Englishman’s career as a designer of racing cars. From late 2014 onwards Newey will focus on ‘other projects’ within the Red Bull operation, and will only have a consultancy role in the creation of future Red Bull grand prix racing cars.

Adrian Newey has been designing cars since 1983 and the following article looks back at each of them, but you first have to look at the early days of his career.

Even with his apparent step back from day to day design work in Formula 1 most Formula 1 teams still dream of hiring him, indeed for most of them it seems inconceivable that you would even think about firing him but but during Newey’s long and fascinating career he has been, expelled, asked to leave and outright fired.

Our story of Adrian Newey’s career does not start with a hiring but instead a firm request for his immediate departure. As a teenager Newey attended the historic Repton public school (at the same time as Jeremy Clarkson) but was asked to leave after he high-jacked a school concert soundcheck and blew out a stained glass window.

From his Repton expulsion Newey headed to college in Leamington-Spa, in the Midlands region of England. There he gained a National Diploma in engineering. This was enough for him to get a place at University of Southampton to study Aeronautics and Astronautics (a Newey designed spaceship anyone?).

The 2000’s – Losing the battle with Brawn

Is this the end?

By the end of the 2013 season it had become very clear that Newey had grown deeply frustrated with Formula 1 claiming that the regulations were becoming too restrictive and that the sport was slowly morphing into a kind of ‘GP1’ rather than the open engineering rules that he craved. His arch rival of many years Ross Brawn had retired at the end of 2013 too.

After weeks of speculation Red Bull Racing revealed that Newey was to stay with the organisation but would take a step back from designing Formula 1 cars. A short statement from the team read:

Red Bull is pleased to confirm that it has extended its successful relationship with Adrian Newey with a new multi-year agreement. As part of this new agreement, Adrian will work on new Red Bull Technology projects, as well as advising and mentoring Infiniti Red Bull Racing as it develops its Formula One cars over the next few seasons. The details of the new projects will be announced in due course.

It is thought that the most likely of these projects is the long rumoured Americas Cup project design. One of the big things that differentiates Formula 1 from almost all other sports, with perhaps the exception of the Americas Cup, is that combination of man and machine, you can have a great car with an average driver and you won’t win, a great driver with an average car you won’t win. It’s about both.”

The F1 car for the road?

Speaking about the project, Newey revealed that while he was certain that while the car concept could deliver extreme F1-like pace, it essential that that car also featured GT-like levels of comfort and capability.

“I’ve long harboured the desire to design a road car. The formation of Red Bull Advanced Technologies brought me a step closer to realising that ambition, but I believed we should work with an automotive manufacturer. Aston Martin was at the top of my list,” he said. “I’ve always been adamant that the AM-RB 001 should be a true road car that’s also capable of extreme performance on track, and this means it really has to be a car of two characters. That’s the secret we’re trying to put into this car – the technology that allows it to be docile and comfortable, but with immense outright capabilities.”

The car will apparently be offered in two variants, a very limited run of street cars (only 99-150 examples) and a more track focussed version which may or may not be used for competition.

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