5 F1 drivers who won the title driving an Adrian Newey creation

Adrian Newey is not working on Red Bull's F1 project anymore. Set to leave after the first quarter of 2025, he will be working on developing Red Bull’s first hypercar, the RB17.

The ace designer has been part of the team since 2006 and during this time, he has propelled two different drivers to the title at Red Bull. He's been a part of two very dominant reigns as well with Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel.

Having said that, Newey has not only been achieved success with these two drivers. In fact, he's done that with multiple teams and propelled multiple drivers to championships.

There are multiple drivers, including a few F1 legends, who exclusively won their titles in Adrian Newey creations. Who are they? Let's take a look.

---

5 drivers who won F1 titles in an Adrian Newey car

#1 Nigel Mansell

Nigel Mansell was an F1 phenom of his time, but unfortunately, being a contemporary to Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost meant he lost out on quite a few titles. However, in his last stint in F1 with Williams, he finally struck gold.

Mansell was part of the team when it set its eyes on aerodynamics expert in Adrian Newey. Newey joined the team and, with Patrick Head at the helm, built the first active aerodynamics car that left the entire F1 grid shocked. The car was just on a different level, and in 1992, when Mansell got a hold of it, there was no stopping him.

He went on to win the championship with ease as he dominated the field in a car that left other vehicles looking like they didn't belong in the same category.

---

#2 Alain Prost

Damon Hill was thrown into the deep end very early in his F1 career when he got the opportunity to partner Alain Prost at Williams in 1993. After doing a decent job, the task got harder as he had Ayrton Senna as his teammate in 1994. With Senna passing away early in the year, the battle to fight Michael Schumacher for the title came down to Hill.

After failing to do it in 1994 and 1995, Hill was able to accomplish this in an Adrian Newey creation in 1996, when Schumacher moved to Ferrari. That title was Hill's only F1 championship.

---

#3 Mika Hakkinen

Mika Hakkinen was a rough diamond who Ron Dennis placed a lot of his trust in at McLaren. Hakkinen's talent truly started to shine in 1997 and 1998, when Adrian Newey joined the team and the Finnish driver had a strong car under him.

After winning his first race in 1997, Hakkinen won his first title in 1998 with a car designed by Adrian Newey. He fended off Michael Schumacher to ultimately help McLaren win its first title since the Senna days. Hakkinen then once again won in 1999 before the Ferrari-Michael Schumacher era of dominance.

---

#4 Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel was a brash young talent who was molded by Helmut Marko and Red Bull and impressed in his very first outing at BMW in 2007. Soon after, he got his chance with Red Bull's Torro Rosso and made his mark.

Vettel made it to Red Bull in 2009 and helped the team win its first race in China that season. After falling short of the title in 2009, the German clinched it in 2010, beating three other drivers in the last race.

Vettel ended his Red Bull run with four titles, driving some of the best Adrian Newey creations from 2010 to 2013.

---

#5 Max Verstappen

The latest addition to this list is Max Verstappen, who joined the team in 2016 and was a vital part of Red Bull's rise back to the top. The resurgence was complete in 2021, when Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to win his first-ever title in an Adrian Newey car.

Since then, Red Bull's dominance has grown stronger as he won two more titles in 2022 and 2023 with Newey's creations and is a frontrunner this year as well.