‘I think Red Bull expert behind Max Verstappen’s success should win BBC SPOTY’
Heidi Klum enjoys weekend at F1 Las Vegas
In keeping with the British love of a gallant runner-up the two favourites to take the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award did not actually win anything in 2023. Mary Earps, penalty-saving goalkeeper in the Lionesses’ World Cup final defeat, is battling it out in the bookies’ eyes with Stuart Broad, England’s leading wicket-taker in the drawn Ashes series.
What happened to winning? If you are after domination on a scale rarely seen in any sport, the individual lifting the trophy should be Adrian Newey. If a Red Bull wins this weekend in the concluding race of the season, the RB19 – Newey’s baby – will have won 21 out of the 22 races which will be breaking new ground in F1 ascendancy. While Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s McLaren MP4/4 also lost only one race in 1988 that was in a 16-race season.
Newey would hate the recognition of course – Red Bull’s chief technical officer is attracted to the limelight in the same way as Count Dracula is to the midday sun – but his genius has turned Formula One into a procession this season. It might have been from the shadows but in terms of impact, no British sporting figure can match him in 2023.
On the Sunday evening of the opening grand prix of the season in Bahrain won by Max Verstappen, George Russell announced the championship was already over. He was right. Verstappen has been extraordinary, of course, and is the best driver in Formula One. But he wouldn’t have won the drivers’ title in the Ferrari or the Mercedes.
He is riding a magic carpet. In an era when aerodynamics are so important, Red Bull have the master of the art in Newey. To label him a visionary is to undersell him. He literally can see things others can’t.
In a rare interview this week with BBC Sport he matter-of-factly admitted to being able to picture the airflow pattern under an F1 car. It is a sixth sense born out of his genes – he is a mix of a scientific father and an artistic mother – but it is also a product of experience.
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He is 65 now and has been doing this – for Wiliams, McLaren and now Red Bull – for 40 years. The bouncing issues that handicapped other cars early on this season, particularly Mercedes, were never likely to be an issue for Red Bull because Newey had encountered them before in his first job as an aerodynamicist at Fittipaldi in the 80s.
There is a wider point here about the short-sightedness of discarding knowledge and wisdom at the first sight of a grey hair or a wrinkle. Newey has forgotten more about F1 car design than others will ever know.
In any case age for him is purely a number. He shows no sign of slowing down. He has enervating side hustles on the go in America’s Cup racing yacht design and even a submarine but it is F1 where his heart lies.
He has designed some wonderful racing cars in his time but the RB19 has to be the pinnacle of his creations. The fact that Sergio Perez, who has driven like he is on P-plates this season, has wrapped up runners-up spot is testament to its excellence.
Verstappen – and it has to be him – will know who the first person is he has to thank after he takes the chequered flag for the final time this season in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Newey might not be behind the wheel but he is behind what will go down as the greatest car in F1 history.
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