Newey’s vision on what F1 should be

Throughout his career we have seen plenty of ideas for his ultimate F1 machine – which famously included his Red Bull X2010 created for Gran Turismo. It was a 1400bhp fan car that smashed the track record at Suzuka by 20 seconds during simulator runs.

But delivering the perfect F1 car is not just about having the ultimate cars, because a grid full of X2010s would probably not deliver brilliant racing that fans desire.

Instead, creating a successful F1 requires overcoming a ton of conflicting demands to hit targets that come together to create something that is truly exciting.

So at a time that F1 is debating whether or not the current rules era has delivered all that was hoped for, and there is intrigue about what we can expect from 2026, it seemed a perfect moment to sit down with Newey and download his thoughts on what F1 should be.

Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, Newey offered a fascinating and pragmatic insight into the direction he felt F1 should go, as there were plenty of aspects in the changing world around us that means the head has to rule the heart these days.

“It’s where all the conundrums come in,” said Newey. “I think most people would say, from a spectacle point of view, you probably want a high-revving V10, normally aspirated. We all kind of pine after the V10s and even the V8s of the 2000s.

“But of course they are not fuel efficient. So, then you have to have the balance of spectacle versus social responsibility, even though the fuel consumption of the cars in terms of the pollution that is caused by the sport is, in reality, tiny.

“The biggest contributor by far has to be people attending the races. And in that sense, it’s no different to football or any other international sport. But it’s the image and the popularisation. So, I think that’s your first conundrum: the power source. Do you go for efficiency, which is typically relatively quiet, because noise is actually inefficiency?

“And then on the chassis side, to me it’s small and light. The cars have got very big. Those are the fundamentals.

“You can then start to debate how quick the car should be, in terms of lap time in high-speed performance, but the thing you have to remember is television invariably has the appearance of slowing cars…