Adrian Newey awarded the OBE

Modified Apr 07, 2012 14:36 GMT

This has been a long time coming. Adrian Newey has been appointed the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the British 2012 New Year Honours for his extraordinary contribution to motorsport.

Engineers are not generally awarded the OBE but if there is one engineer in the current era who thoroughly deserves it, it is Adrian Newey.

His slight disappointment as engineering – not been highly recognised is clear in his words after receiving the OBE from the Queen – “I’m also very proud of the fact that engineering has been recognised, in as much as obviously I’m an engineer, and therefore as a profession, we’ve been recognised. I think that unfortunately Britain does have a habit of forgetting its proud heritage in respect of the industrial revolution and its ingenuity over the years of coming up with amazing designs. So, for it to come to the forefront again in terms of an OBE made me very proud as an engineer”.

Newey is currently the technical director of Red Bull Racing and has been the key man behind the team’s huge successes in the past two and a half seasons.

His main job is as a Formula One aerodynamicist and by far he is the best among the current lot. He is very much sought after by all of the Red Bull’s rivals, and especially Ferrari, but they have not been able to lure Newey from Red Bull and that has hugely played to the Milton Keynes’ based team’s benefits.

One interesting thing about Adrian Newey is that he still makes his drawings using pencil and paper when the rest of the Formula 1 world uses all sorts of complicated softwares such as CFD and many more. When asked about this, Red Bull boss Christian Horner agrees and jokes that Newey’s drawing board is the only drawing board in the Red Bull office!

He is an alumni of the University of Southampton and his first job was with the Fittipaldi F1 team in 1980. He became famous during the early 1990s when he and Patrick Head, together at Williams, became the best technical combination of the field. But his rising career took a slight dip in the mid 1990s when he wanted a share in the Williams F1 team but his wish was not granted as Patrick Head was already a share-holding founder at the team. This resulted in a fallout and Newey left the team. His next stop was McLaren where he joined in the latter half of 1997.

Before the start of the 2000 season, Newey-designed cars had won 6 drivers’ championships- 4 during his time at Williams in 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 2 during his tenure at McLaren in 1998 and 1999. His cars were also able to bag 6 constructors’ championships during the decade – 5 at Williams in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1 at McLaren in 1998.

There was again a bit of a slowdown in his career when the McLaren cars he designed did not win another championship till the end of his tenure there in 2005. From 2000-2004, the championships were dominated by the Ferraris designed by Rory Bryne, a legend himself. So, Newey again moved to a different team and this time it was newbies Red Bull Racing.

It took Newey 3 years to bring race-winning success at Red Bull. The first time he designed a race-winning car at Red Bull was in 2009. The RB5 started matching and beating the Brawn GP cars on a regular basis during the latter part of the season. Although Red Bull missed out on both the Drivers’ and the Constructors’ Championships very narrowly that year, the tides finally turned for them as they won both the championships the following year. In 2011, the RB7’s dominance was comparable to Michael Schumacher’s dominance in 2002 and 2004 and the team easily clinched both the championships.

The RB5 was fundamentally a very good car and that is evident when Newey and Christian Horner keeps emphasizing on the fact that the next three cars that have come out of the Milton Keynes factory have been its close descendants.

Although this year’s RB8 has not proved to be a world-beater, it is only a matter of time before Newey’s genius unlocks the true potential of the car and it starts challenging for poles and race wins.

Whatever happens in the future, one thing is for sure: Adrian Newey has cemented his place among the legends in Formula 1 car design such as Colin Chapman, Gordon Murray and Derek Gardner to name a few.