Fresh from the team’s success off the F1 Driver & Constructors Championship, Horner and Newey sit down together for the first time to reflect on their time working together, Verstappen and Vettel, what can be learnt from losing and how they formed a formidable F1 alliance.
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Having designed championship-winning F1 cars for Williams and McLaren, Newey moved to Red Bull Racing in 2006 under Team Principal Christian Horner and provided the platform for the four consecutive titles in which both German Sebastian Vettel and the team won 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Horner and Newey combined for many Grand Prix victories in the years between 2014 and 2020, then Newey’s RB16B design propelled Dutchman Verstappen to his first Drivers’ title in 2021, and the RB18 car became the dominant force behind the team’s two 2022 titles.
Oracle Red Bull Racing’s team principal and chief technical officer talk about everything from titles and triumphs to learning from losing, how their partnership began and why Christian says Adrian “lives in the Matrix”.
Christian, you’ve described Adrian’s move to Red Bull as a litmus moment. What do you mean by that?
CH: “I think the general consensus was that Red Bull was there to have a good time with parties, the energy station and a whole vibe. I think what was missing was a clear technical direction. I’d always been a fan of Adrian and his cars going way back to Leyton House times in the late 1980s, and Adrian was the very best that’s ever been in Formula One. So it was a question of how we could entice Adrian to join the Red Bull team?”
Adrian, was there any scepticism about joining a team led by, dare I say, an inexperienced team principal?
AN: “Yes, there was a bit of nervousness on my part. I’d been lucky enough to work for two great teams, and I’d been fortunate enough to win several races, championships and so forth, but I just felt it was starting to get a bit stale at McLaren. Like Leyton House, it felt like unfinished business that there was a team to be involved in right from the start. Winning championships seemed a very distant dream. Just trying to win races was something that really intrigued me.”
What were your first impressions of Sebastian Vettel?
CH: “Sebastian was a product of the junior team, so we could see how he was developing in Formula Three or even in Formula BMW before that, and then he went off to be a test driver…
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