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Red Bull aero genius Adrian Newey's name has often been attributed to success in F1. His latest creation, the beautiful RB19, has not lost a single race this season. Newey is often credited with the success of the Austrian team. While he would always continue to do such a thing and claim that it's a team effort, often the credit for his beautiful creations has been solely put down to him.
So much so that Sebastian Vettel's title run of four championships from 2010-13 does get attributed to Newey quite a few times. Even in the current ground effect era, the same has happened with Max Verstappen's accomplishments. Newey gets the credit he rightly deserves but often it is said that since a driver has a car designed by the genius, he will hold an edge.
The brilliance of Adrian Newey is nothing new as he has been a part of the sport since 1988. In 35 years the kind of success he has achieved does make him one of the more sought-after names in F1. There is, however, a question that needs to be answered.
Does Adrian Newey guarantee success in F1? If a team like Red Bull has Newey in its ranks, does it almost guarantee having the fastest car on the grid? Does his presence automatically transform the fortunes of any team he is a part of? Let's take a look at his numbers and compare it with some of the other stalwarts to see where Adrian finds himself.
In this feature, we will compare Adrian Newey's career with fellow stalwarts like Ross Brawn and James Allison to see how they stack up comparatively.
The Red Bull wizard's career in numbers and how it fares against contemporaries
#1 Adrian Newey
No. of years - 35 (1988 - Present)
Title triumphs - 11 (1992, 1993, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2021, and 2022)
Success rate - 31.4%
The Red Bull aero genius has been a part of the sport since 1988 and during this time he has produced some masterpieces. His first triumph came with the groundbreaking active suspension enabled Williams in 1992 and 1993, two cars that were in a different league to its competition. He won his last title with Williams in 1996 before moving to McLaren in 1997.
The Red Bull designer tasted immediate success at McLaren and won the 1998 and 1999 titles with Mika Hakkinen. Both the team and the designer went through a lean patch after that. He left the Woking-based squad in 2006 citing burnout and a general lack of satisfaction.
Newey's next destination was Red Bull and that is where he has defined his legacy. Four consecutive titles from 2010-13 were impressive but then having the ability to challenge the dominant Mercedes in 2021 and winning the title was an incredible achievement.
With Red Bull, Newey is on another dominant run right now with titles in 2021, 2022, and in all likelihood 2023 as well. His overall success rate in all these years is at 31.4 percent with 11 titles in 35 years.
#2 Ross Brawn
No. of years - 22 (1991-2013)
Title wins = 9 (1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2009)
Success rate = 40.9%
Talking about Ross Brawn then the F1 legend has been a part of the sport since he was almost a kid. He worked his way through different roles before he finally got the chance to be the technical director at Benetton in 1991. Most of Brawn's success coincided with a certain German driver named Michael Schumacher.
He won in 1994 and 1995 with Benetton before moving to Ferrari with Michael Schumacher. He won the constructors title for the team in 1999 for the Italian team before the team's dominance truly began in 2000. After a successful spell with the Italian brand ended in 2006, he moved to Honda and will ultimately get success in 2009 with the squad(although the team was called Brawn GP by then).
Brawn was arguably the architect behind Mercedes' dominance that started in 2014 and ended Red Bull's reign but since he wasn't part of the team that season we can't really attribute the title to him. In his 22 years in the sport in a leadership capacity. Brawn had a success rate of 40.9 percent.
#3 James Allison
No. of years - 28 (1995-2023)
Title wins = 11 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021)
Success rate = 39.3%
Finally, we move to the man who is trying to end Red Bull's era of dominance while working away tirelessly at Mercedes. James Allison has been part of the sport for a long time now. His first leadership role came with Larrouse in 1995 but he tasted success as a deputy technical director(working with Ross Brawn) in 2000. Allison enjoyed success with Ferrari but ironically he was also responsible for ending the team's dominance in 2005.
Allison had moved to Renault and was responsible for the beautiful challengers with which Fernando Alonso won the title in 2005 and 2006. After producing some stunning challengers for Lotus in 2012 and 2013 followed by a two-year failed experiment at Ferrari, Allison was back leading things in Mercedes. He helped the German team produce some brilliant challengers and won the championship from 2018 to 2021.
After taking a break from day-to-day work at Mercedes, Allison is now back at the team hoping to bring the team back to glory. The technical director currently holds a 39.3 percent success rate in F1, although a part of it did come when he was working with Ross Brawn at Ferrari.
Conclusion
This is where things get interesting because if we look at the success rate of some of Newey's contemporaries, he seems to have the worst among them. If we remove his latest stint with Red Bull (arguably his longest and most successful), the record does not look as impressive either.
Ross Brawn, who butted heads with Newey for all these years seems to be as good if not better while James Allison's brilliant work cannot be ignored either. If we solely go by the success rate metric, the Red Bull legend does not measure well against Brawn or Allison.
The concept of a 'team' in F1
This is where the most important lesson in F1 needs to be learned. Adrian Newey is a true genius. So was Ross Brawn in the way he managed teams and the same can be said about James Allison. This is where we need to understand the concept of a 'team' in F1 where success or even dominance is not guaranteed by a single individual.
Adrian Newey's magically brilliant Williams in 1992 and 1993 were aided by the complete backing, support, and even guidance from Patrick Head. Ross Brawn's success coincided with having a force of nature in Michael Schumacher as a part of the unit while James Allison succeeded at Mercedes, a team that was just leaps and bounds ahead of everybody else.
The reality of Adrian Newey's contribution to Red Bull's success
Adrian Newey has played a major role in Red Bull's success but it would be foolhardy to claim that the success is entirely down to him. His genius produced the off-throttle blown diffuser in the early 2010s but it took a talent like Sebastian Vettel to exploit it, lest we forget, Mark Webber never finished a championship as a runner-up.
The current generation of Red Bull cars are brilliant pieces of art but they have been aided by an amazing power unit. a once in a generation driver and the most complete team in F1. When we talk about success in F1, a team has to check quite a few boxes before it starts winning.
It needs to have a strong driver, it needs to have the best infrastructure, the strategic unit needs to be perfect and so does the team leadership. Adran Newey's role as the genius that builds Red Bull cannot be ignored, but can he solely be held responsible for Red Bull's success in F1? No, that's not the case.
