Red Bull aero wizard Adrian Newey awarded a lifetime achievement award by Top Gear

Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey was recently awarded a lifetime achievement award by renowned motorsport magazine Top Gear. The title was awarded to him as part of the 2023 TopGear.com awards, where several cars were also recognized in different categories.

Top Gear claimed that many regard Adrian Newey as the greatest F1 car designer of all time. On their website, they honored the Red Bull chief technical officer with the award and wrote:

"The man many regard as the greatest F1 designer ever."

Adrian Newey first joined F1 in 1990 and started working at Williams. While he was there, Williams won five constructors' titles with drivers like Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, and Jacques Villeneuve winning their drivers' world championships.

Adrian Newey left Williams to join McLaren in 1997, where he had a few successful years, with Mika Hakkinen winning two drivers' championships. Eventually, the chief car designer left the British team to join Red Bull in 2006, despite being persuaded by Ron Dennis to stay at McLaren.

The Brit had the most successful stint of his career while at Red Bull. From 2010 to 2013, the Austrian team won four constructors' and drivers' titles, with Sebastian Vettel running rampant. Newey's car designs were extremely successful during the early 2010s, especially with Vettel at the wheel.

Even though Mercedes arrived at the scene and dominated the rest of the 2010s, Newey's cars were able to perform in the top half of the grid. During and after 2021, when Max Verstappen started unleashing his talent, the Austrian-British team reclaimed the summit, becoming the team to beat in F1 for three seasons running.

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Red Bull designer Adrian Newey on what helps him design dominant F1 cars

Adrian Newey recently spoke about how his inner mind works when he designs F1 cars. He claimed that he can picture the car's aerodynamics in his mind and termed this realistic mental imagery as one of his strengths.

Newey also added that he has 'several great' team members who he believes can do the job just as well. When asked by the BBC's Andrew Benson about the secret behind his talent, Newey said:

"I can picture it. And if I try to be objective, that's perhaps one of my strengths - that I can actually picture things well in my mind's eye. The quality is certainly not unique - we have got several great engineers now who can also do that."

He added:

"That's ultimately what you need - that combination of the creative, artistic side, measured with an engineering discipline and analytical side."

Red Bull ended the 2023 F1 season with a whopping 860 points, with Max Verstappen setting the record for most wins (19) and points (575) in a single F1 season.