Newey: “I can’t see myself going anywhere else”

F1 Fanatic round-up

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Adrian Newey, Red Bull, Suzuka, 2011

In the round-up: Adrian Newey scotches talk of him eventually moving to Ferrari, saying he’d prefer to stay where he is.

Links

Newey staying at Red Bull (The Telegraph)

“To be perfectly honest I can’t see myself going anywhere else. I’ve been very centrally involved with the team from very early on and proud we’ve been able to get from where we were, and the ashes of Jaguar, to where we are today.”

Motor racing-Button gives new McLaren an early thumbs-up (Reuters)

“There are no niggly areas with the car, which is nice. Quite different to last year. So I’m happy. I’m very happy in the car. I’m in a good position. I’m really low, which I always like, trying to get as low as possible, with the way that the car is.”

Teams fear exhaust saga not over yet (Autosport)

Adrian Newey: “The FIA has been reasonably specific in what they will and won’t allow exhaust wise. They don’t want to see what have been capture ducts scooping the exhaust flow out of a fully enclosed duct, and then using that scoop to duct it somewhere else on the car. Plus, we have the various exclusion zones where you can’t have bodywork.”

Marussia plan Pic stay after 2012 campaign (Daily Mail)

Andy Webb: “I think there is some long-term potential for him. I’m looking really to see if he can go forward for more than one year.”

Tombazis: “The first day is always a special feeling” (Ferrari)

“This car represents a clear break with the one that preceded it and it features concepts that are very different for us and that require much more fine tuning. That’s why today we absolutely did not have an eye on the stopwatch, preferring to concentrate on gathering as much data as possible in order to get as good an understanding as possible of the behaviour of the car.”

And the winner is… Don’t tell us! (The Guardian)

“One BBC viewer (and listener) took their complaint all the way to the BBC Trust after the results of the Australian Grand Prix qualifying round were read out on a Radio 4 news bulletin. They said the corporation should take greater care when reading out results and certainly only do so in a sports – rather than general news – bulletin.”

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Comment of the day

The 2012 F1 cars may look dreadful, but at least they sound better, points out damonsmedley:

The one thing I’m absolutely loving so far is the videos coming out from Jerez. Not because the bump in the nose less noticeable at speed; but because we’re finally hearing the V8s in all of their glory, unspoiled by the awful racket we had to put up with last year thanks to exhaust-blown diffusers. The sound is back to how it should be, and I’m thrilled!
damonsmedley

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Virgin launched their second – and, as it turned out, last – F1 car at BBC Television Centre on this day last year:

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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86 comments on “Newey: “I can’t see myself going anywhere else””

  1. I agree wholeheartedly with Damon on this. Sadly nothing much else to say thanks to a cold :(

    1. @scuderiavincero @damonsmedley Mine and Damon’s age old argument! I for one loved the sound of the EBD and i’m still waiting on my compilation CD of EBD noise, courtesy of Damon.

      1. @AndrewTanner I hope he compiles them into a song, like they did on Top Gear. That, or I continue listening to my brother’s V-Tec :)

  2. I heard Scarbs on the flying lap with Windsor saying the FIA, Whiting or whatever is beliving some teams are not following “the spirit of the rules”.

    How lame… there’s no “spirit” in the rules… that’s long gone and away.

    1. “Spirit of the rules” is usually one or more of the teams saying “we think this particular design gives an advantage, but we’d like it banned because we didn’t think of it ourselves”. This is the first time in a long while that I’ve heard of the FIA saying it.

      1. @prisoner-monkeys @fer-no65 To be fair – a lot of the things that are banned produced behavior in the cars that the rules and regulations usually sought to eliminate; or used something to an effect that the FIA didn’t like it used for.

        For example; the TWG wanted to eliminate wheel covers to improve the wake of the cars, and Ferrari showed up with the rings around their wheels – which produced the same effect. The 2009 regs were brought in to reduce downforce and also give everyone almost a “spec” diffuser. But by putting the vertical slot the DDD arose and basically meant everybody still had buckets of downforce

        1. To be fair – a lot of the things that are banned produced behavior in the cars that the rules and regulations usually sought to eliminate; or used something to an effect that the FIA didn’t like it used for.

          Perhaps, and that’s probably the case here. I’m just highlighting the way teams are very quick to claim something “goes against the spirit of the rules” when they don’t have it themselves and so are seeking to negate someone else’s advantage. That’s why the phrase has such a negative connotation these days – it’s usually used by teams trying to sabotage one another and then claim they are doing it for the good of the sport.

          1. @prisoner-monkeys I see where you’re coming from now. Having said that most of the innovations that have been banned are mostly in the way that I have described in my post.

            F-ducts created cars that could change their fundamental aero properties, for example. EBDs used the engine for downforce production, though the FIA intended for the engine to be used purely for torque supply.

        2. of course. That’s the way it should be done and they should allow concepts to get around the ban.

          that’s the way engineering works: there’s a problem or a limitation and you try to get round it. I bet the Wright brothers didn’t say: “heck, gravity is killing us. But we can’t do nothing”. They got round it…

          1. DDD was a classic example of an innovation not in the spirit of the rules but not outlawed either. The FIA let that through, so if someone has come up with something legal but not in the spirit of the rules, so what – good luck to them.

            Unless of course you’re from Lotus then your innovative suspension is now banned, after we said it was legal after all…

      2. Maybe it’s time that the FIA produces a written commentary to go with the rules, to explain to various parties (the teams, the drivers, the fans) why the rule exists, and what is the intention of the rule.

        1. @Jason…great point about the FIA/Whiting pointing out something going against the spirit of the rules when it is usually a team that didn’t think of an interesting innovation that says that about another team. So it is up to the FIA then to either allow what they have seen or not. And therein sometimes lies the inconsistancy of the enforcement of the rules. I think that the FIA sometimes (or often) cleverly words the rules to allow for some room to play…otherwise the cars would be homogenous. That said it should be clearcut within the boundaries that the FIA have set. ie. either against the spirit of the rules should mean (to me at least) breaking the rules and therefore disallowed, or the innovation is cleverly thought out and within the rules and therefore within the spirit of innovation in F1.

          So the way I see it, if the FIA and Whiting are using the phrase ‘against the spirit of the rules’ then we should be seeing some teams forced to make some changes. Otherwise, it was up to the FIA to be more specific with changes to the rules for 2012.

  3. “The FIA has been reasonably specific in what they will and won’t allow exhaust wise”

    Spot the grey area word. I’m not sure if I find this kind of thing interesting or frustrating, can’t decide. Can’t they just have the exhausts sticking vertically up in the air (wacky races style) to the height of the rear wing and be done with it.

    1. Then they’ll be blowing the rear wing…

      1. I think he means having the exhaust level with the top of the rear wing, like a chimney, so that the exhaust gasses can’t be used for anything.

        Although it’s not funny when you have to explain it.

        1. @US_Peter Either what @prisoner-monkeys said, or @johnh meant that so everyone received the same benefit.

          1. The point is you’d have to have them stick up far past the height of the rear wing for it to have no affect on blowing body parts, and even then the negligible amount of thrust an exhaust creates is still something. The bottom line is that it’s nearly impossible to isolate exhaust from aero performance completely. Electric motors would solve that completely.
            *ducks to avoid rotten tomatoes*

          2. @US_Peter The issue is not getting them to cause no aero benefit. But a mandated spec exhaust as @johnh said would mean nobody had an advantage/disadvantage in this area.

    2. It’s a difficult one because the engineers, being engineers, will always try to improve within the resitrictions placed on the. The restrictions are the letter or the rules (no such thing as the “spirit” of the rules IMHO), so they will look for the best performance within that. If that breaks the so-called “spirit of the rules” then so be it, it’s not illegal if it doesn’t break the actual, written rules.

  4. Will there be a special version of F1Fanatic for BBC viewers who are trying to avoid the results?

    1. yes this is an interesting point. Keith would have to delay result-related articles by a few hours during race weekends…
      or simply people should just avoid the site for a bit.

      1. or simply people should just avoid the site for a bit.

        What do you think I was doing when I was on a delayed broadcast? Avoiding the site for a couple of hours wasn’t difficult. And while BBC viewers might get delayed coverage of the races and qualifying, what about all of the other site users who get the races and qualifying sessions live?

        1. @lola @sato113 While I mean no disrespect to you folks; I fully agree with what @prisoner-monkeys said. It’s not fair on the people who watch live.

          1. It’s not fair on the people who watch live.

            And it’s not difficult to avoid logging on. So you have to kill a few hours between Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening. Read a book. I recommend Jeffrey Deaver.

          2. I would like to echo @prisoner-monkey ‘s sentiments, except I would replace Jeffrey Deaver with John Grisham :P

          3. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
            8th February 2012, 1:50

            No, I think Clive Cussler or Matthew Reilly are better choices, although I do enjoy a good John Grisham novel.

          4. @jarred-walmsley Cussler and Reilly are action thrillers are they not?

            I’m not a fan of the Tom Clancy/Dale Brown type action thriller

          5. @jarred-walmsley

            No, I think Clive Cussler or Matthew Reilly are better choices, although I do enjoy a good John Grisham novel.

            I’m a big Reilly fan, even if he took a turn for the worse with <em.The Six Sacred Stones and The Five Greatest Warriors. Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves was a return to form, though.

            But I never could get into Clive Cussler.

          6. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
            8th February 2012, 4:53

            @prisoner-monkeys fair enough, he’s not everyones cup of tea, and i’ve just seen the latest Castle episode and know I now where you got your avatar from, how did you get it so far in advance of the show airing?

          7. how did you get it so far in advance of the show airing?

            Google. It’s a promotional picture for the fourth season.

        2. @prisoner-monkeys

          Avoiding the site for a couple of hours wasn’t difficult.

          i wasn’t saying it’s difficult.
          i have sky too btw

          1. Yeah, I know. My comment was directed more towards @lola (Tom).

        3. It would be useful to not use the F1F facebook page and feeding F1F tweets onto facebook during the broadcast gap, we don’t want to have to avoid everything. That’s the trouble with the whole world being so connected, it does get more and more difficult to not find out things.

        4. Avoiding the site for a couple of hours wasn’t difficult.

          PM avoiding the site for a couple of hours? I don’t believe it!!!

    2. I don’t think it should be that hard to avoid the results. When there’s a Grand Prix on, I’m not sitting on the computer looking for F1 news; I’m watching a Grand Prix!

      1. I think @lola means before the rerun starts, but after the live race ends…

        1. There probably wouldn’t be much of an interval between the live race ending and the delayed telecast ending. It’s not a silly suggestion though. It would be cool if there was something you could add to the URL and it would delay all articles by 3 hours (or however long it would be from the live race ending to the delayed telecast ending).

          1. Huh? 3 hours? That’s it between the BBC rerun and the live race? I thought they were meant to be far apart.

          2. @raymondu999 I didn’t mean it was exactly 3 hours! I honestly have no idea and I’ve not looked it up as I don’t live in the UK, but I was using 3 hours as an example. I’ll write “x hours” next time if you like. :P

          3. @damonsmedley x is way overrated. Make it “y hours” and we have a deal :P

          4. @raymondu999 Do you not mean to say x is x-rated? (Oh yes, I just went there)

            Oh, and yeah… done!

      2. Lucky you – I rarely get to see a race live. And I have found it particularly annoying on more than one occasion when BBC3’s news roundup immediately before the highlights show included the race results!

        Solution – the iPlayer :-)

    3. @lola They will have to avoid Twitter too. I imagine it will be quite painful for many of the regulars :(

      1. Well, what I used to do for a race that was on very early last season, was to set it to record and then put (at the time) Freeview recorder on BBC 3.

        So when I turned on my tv, all i got was a blank screen saying programming starts at 7pm and then I can go straight to my recordings library and press ‘play’ without any little accidents. :)

        Now I will just sky+ HD it ;) and quickly change the channel to something in the movies so as not too accidently run into the result if I don’t wanna get up at the crack of dawn after a saturday night out :)

        1. Basically the same applies for missing the results of the F1 if you don’t have sky. Just watch a recording or something, or spend the £30 p/m on sky HD, remember Sky Sports F1HD is free to HD subscribers, you don’t need the sports pack, although I’m not sure how long this will last.

          Good to see a forum where there isn’t just constant moaning about the tv rights and people saying they are going to cancel their tv licence lol :)

          1. Normally when in the US there is no danger of accidentally hearing GP results, but I recall a banner-line doing just that as I was watching a MotoGP or WSB on SpeedTV whilst waiting for the delayed broadcast of the GP on Fox.

  5. I never thought there was any chance of Newey leaving Red Bull to be honest. He’s created his own technical system; with probably a lot of free reign on who he hires, and he’s continuously designing the fastest F1 cars of the new regulations set.

    As I understand it that was part of the reason why he left McLaren. He felt “boxed in” to a structure and culture that he didn’t subscribe to.

    1. And to be honest, he would probably feel justified at the moment. Mclaren, despite being one of my favourite teams have produced a succession of runners up, and one of the biggest sporting espionage cases in history.

      Not exactly a culture you would want to subscribe to really is it….

      1. Do you think the spy scandal would have happened with Newey in charge at McLaren? He joined Red Bull in 2006, while the scandal was orchestrated by his protege and sometime design partner, Mike Coughlan.

        1. @prisoner-monkeys Adrian is an out and out engineer. To be 100% perfectly honest, I actually think he would leave if he knew about it. He would relish, instead, the challenge of reverse engineering what they saw off the Ferrari instead

          1. I don’t think it would have happened under Newey’s leadership. I seem to recall a theory at the time that suggested Coughlan had no intention of working the Ferrari data into the McLaren car because he was dissatisfied with the team. The theory held that he and Stepney were actually looking to join Honda at the start of 2008, offering up old technical data from Ferrari to help with the chassis design at Brackley. But Coughlan wanted to verify that the Ferrari data was both genuine and useable, and so used the facilities at Woking to test it out. Somehow, completely uninentionally, that data ended up being used to design the McLaren car. Coughlan had only wanted to test it out under the guise of designing the car, but inadvertently let the data out of his control.

          2. Do you actually believe that story?

      2. @CarsVsChildren the culture I was referring to is more that the McLaren system is very clinical. Duties are very segregated, and everything is very professional.

        I don’t think he gelled well in that system despite producing 2 title winners; and so wanted out, preferring instead to go to a small team where he could shape the culture as he wanted.

    2. @raymondu999 This is one of the reasons why I think RBR will be around for a long time. They’ve not simply come in and bought out a McLaren or Ferrari, they bought a team on deaths door and had to build from the ground up. That to me displays longevity and a sportsmanlike passion for wanting to earn what you achieve, not having it gifted to you with money.

      1. @AndrewTanner or they’re trying to show what Red Bull can do when you’re in a near-death (read: sleepy) situation! :P

        1. I recall reading an article about Adrian Newey at least 10 years ago where he was considering leaving F1 altogether and going off and designing racing yachts as he was feeling unchallenged in F1 at the time. Unchallenged may not be the right word, bored might be a better one.

          So while I can appreciate AN staying at Red Bull for now, I also wouldn’t be surprised if he moved on at some point for the challenge of building up another team, or perhaps finally leaving F1 to do something else completely different. For now, who can blame him for wanting to stay at a winning team. And if Ferrari goes back into a WDC drought, perhaps that will be the reason AN might look at for moving there. But I certainly respect him for saying he wouldn’t go there just because they are Ferrari. He obviously needs more reason, or more stimulation, than that.

          1. @robbie I remember reading the same article about Adrian Newey wanting to design yachts, I think I also read a couple of years later that Red Bull let him spend some time working on side projects, such as yachts, and that this was one of the reasons he agreed to go work for them.

            Given Red Bull’s involvement in other sports I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he was given the opportunity to go spend a little time working on the designs of some of the various vehicles that compete under the Red Bull name.

      2. Hmmmm, I would guess (but don’t know) that Red Bull have a pretty high budget and have invested alot of money into the team.

        I would expect also that Newey’s and Vettel’s services come at a pretty high price.

  6. A site in Venezuela have published a document saying is for thw payment of $46mio to Williams for Maldonado´s seat. It is also saying that beside this Maldonado receive almost $20mio more to travel expense.

    They show a scan of an invoice from Williams.

    Translation:

    Pastor Maldonado’s participation in Formula 1, it costs the government $ 66 million a year, as appears from documents held by the patilla.com

    The “Purchase Order” between PDVSA and the British team Williams which allowed the driver Pastor Maldonado renew its participation in the Formula 1 championship is over $ 46 million (29 million pounds) and it adds about 20 million dollars in “per diem” for the pilot and for a foundation that Maldonado own management.

    Maldonado’s participation has caused controversy in a country burdened by many social and economic problems. The contract with the British firm Williams is in charge of the state oil company PDVSA by order of President Hugo Chavez.

    In the last championship, the Venezuelan driver had a gray performance, ranking in block number 19 of 28 pilots getting just 1 point. in the championship final table 2011 that led Sebastian Vettel with 392 points.

  7. If the FIA wants zero aerodynamic effect being done by exhausts then the solution is simple: put them at the very back end like a normal car. Oh no, other teams will use the fumes to propel the car even faster…
    Seriously, stop whining and go think your own concepts so others can get angry and so..

    1. That was the original plan, but the engine manufacturers protested as it meant exceptionally long exhausts that would need to be re-engineered for I believe.

      1. And this naturally would be much more complicated than let’s say building an exhaust that constantly blows a stream of air into the diffuser… :P

      2. @dennis +1 totally. I’m not an engine designer but I reckon that EBDs were far more complex for manufacturers…

    2. I think you have a point.

  8. Comment of the day – —

    Only thing is the Red Bulls atleast are still blowing and sounding exactly the same (to cool the exhaust valves).

  9. Adrian Newey scotches talk of him eventually moving to Ferrari, saying he’d prefer to stay where he is.

    I don’t really know where that talk of a move to Ferrari is coming from. They’ve been after him for years, but Newey has said in the past that he has never wanted to go to Ferrari simply because they’re Ferrari.

    1. that’s not true, he said he would not like to work outside England, which is consistent with his current & former jobs. He does not want to move far from his family…

      1. Oh, it’s true. I have a very clear memory of the last time he was linked to a role at Ferrari – about this time last year, actually (like talk of Toro Rosso being bought out, rumours of Newey going to Ferrari come so regularly and so predictably that you can set your watch by them) – he said he didn’t want to work for Ferrari because they were Ferrari; he didn’t want to work for them simply because of their reputation or their history the way drivers want to drive for Ferrari.

        But I don’t think there has ever been much linking him to a role with the team. Just Ferrari fans who are desperate to see the team win titles again, and figure that Newey would automatically get them back to their winning ways.

        1. Luca di Montezemolo said (at the Vroom event )that he met Adrian Newey in 1997 before he joined Mclaren and the meeting was not positive because
          1) Newey’s wife consider Italy a country of the 3rd world (we all know how Montezemolo is attached to his country)
          2) Newey consider that Ferrari is not a Winning team
          i think that Adrian Newey is one of the best in the business but a single engineer cannot make a team win titles without the contribute of other engineers & that is exactly the Red Bull’s case peaple always talking about Adrian but they forgot about Rob Marshall Peter Prodromo ……& other grate engineers
          Another example is Ross Brawn who won everything with ferrari & now with Mercedes he’s struggling to win a single race
          Ferrari now realized that a grate team cannot rely on a single man so they recruited many engineers in order to become Ferrari again

          1. Tifoso1989…I take your point about it being about more than just one man on a team…it takes a whole team to gel to win a WDC. That said, I remember F1 pundits saying at least a decade ago that AN was more important to his team than MS was to Ferrari. ie. even the best drivers can only do so much if the car is not there…that’s been proven time and time again as usually the WDC winner had the WCC winning car.

            AN might not be the only engineer on whatever team he is on, but they take their direction from him. And Brawn in the MS/Ferrari era ‘won everything’ for very specific reasons that had to do with concentrating on one driver only and having the most resources thrown at said driver than any other driver in the history of F1. ie. it was far from being just about MS at Ferrari. The situation at Merc is nowhere near what it is was at MS/Ferrari, otherwise if it was just about one man, namely MS, or Brawn, they’d be winning.

          2. Brawn was never the ‘only’ guy who won the races at Ferrari.

            It was the combination of Rory Byrne’s designs, Brawn’s strategic decisions and Schumachers dedication to almost limitless testing.

            Given Mercedes performances, you can probably conclude that the only part of that triangle that is missing may have contributed more than the rest.

  10. Andy Webb: “I think there is some long-term potential for him. I’m looking really to see if he can go forward for more than one year.”

    Since maurussia don’t have a simulator and have not tested yet what is this comment based on? the speed with which his sponsor money arrived lol?

    1. “I’ve had a look in his bank account, and I like what I see.”

  11. kenneth Ntulume
    8th February 2012, 6:39

    “…………………………… The front wheels are on the front, the rear wheels are on the back…………………………. he said.
    Jenson Button
    Isnt this the time you say DUHHHHHH!!!!!?????????

  12. I’m sorry, but insisting that the positions for races/qualifying sessions are only for sports bulletins is a simply ridiculous thing to do. As long as it’s in the news, then that’s alright isn’t it?

  13. If FIA want to apply ‘the spirit of the rules’, they should had banned double diffuser in season in 2009.

  14. To be honest, I quite liked the noise the engines made when they did the diffuser blowing, it was aggressive and it made the V8s sound more interesting. I’m probably in the huge minority here, but oh well.

    Everybody knows we all want the V10s back ;)

    1. @brickles I loved it too!

    2. The Red Bulls are still blowing, but yes bring back the V10’s!!!!!

  15. That picture of Newey scares the living crap out of me.

    1. Yeah, I know, why does he leave those patches of hair on the side of his head, looks wierd, I think.

      1. @mattynotwo come on now! That’s obviously a tribute to Captain Picard :P

      2. @mattynotwo
        That, and I feel he can look into my soul and see how its aerodynamics work.

      3. for aero performance. its adrian newey, everything is for aero performance.

  16. Newey: “I can’t see myself going anywhere else”

    Never say never (sorry to cite a JB song! :( )

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