They would meet again.Īfter a brief spell with Newman-Haas race engineering Mario Andretti’s Hanna Car Wash Lola Newey returned to March to design his first ever Formula 1 car. The two would go on to become great rivals but this dream team failed to deliver and the team closed at the end of the season, Brawn headed to Arrows and Newey went back to Indycar. ![]() Here he worked beneath another British engineer, Ross Brawn. Part way through the season Newey joined the FORCE F1 team. The feat was repeated in 1986 with Newey’s next car the March 86C but despite this success it was to be the English designers final Indycar. At the end of the year the CART championship was won by the Newey design. Newey then turned his attention to the Indy 500 and penned the March 85C, the design was popular with teams and it won its second race, the ‘500 itself. It won two IMSA GTP titles (and raced on in 83G & 84G trim). This unusual shape quickly earned the March the nick-name ‘lobster-claw’. Like many later Newey designs the car had an aerodynamic trick up its sleeve, a gaping hole between the front fenders that fed the air to the massive under body Venturis. It featured a reworked BMW M1C aluminium monocoque and was powered by a 5.7 litre Chevy engine. The March 82G GTP – This was the first car to be designed by Adrian Newey, albeit under the direction of Robin Herd. He did not leave the fold at March however and after success engineering Johnny Cecotto in the European F2 championship Adrian Newey designed his first car. But anyway, in the immediate aftermath I was fired, basically and the driver asked if he could have a different engineer!” Newey recalls: “In fact, the problem was a fuel leak, I’m glad to say. At one race Christian Danner wrongly believed his car hadn’t been given enough fuel. Here, not for the first time, for the first time, he was asked to leave. The car was not a great success and by 1981 Newey had joined March as a race engineer. His first job was at Fittipaldi Automotive as Chief Aerodynamicist on the F8 of 1980. Newey finished university with a first class honours degree, having written thesis on ground-effect aerodynamics. The 1980’s – From F1 to Sportscar racing to F1 again via the Indy 500 This was enough for him to get a place at University of Southampton to study Aeronautics and Astronautics (a Newey designed spaceship anyone?). There he gained a National Diploma in engineering. 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.įrom his Repton expulsion Newey headed to college in Leamington-Spa, in the Midlands region of England. ![]() Our story of Adrian Newey’s career does not start with a hiring but instead a firm request for his immediate departure. 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.Īdrian 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.Įven 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. But this new contract was really the end of the Englishman’s career as a designer of racing cars. 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.
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