Red Bull aero wizard Adrian Newey explains why the team focussed on race performance over qualifying

Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey recently discussed why the team focused more on race performance than qualifying pace. While both qualifying and race pace are important in a Grand Prix, Newey and other team seniors feel that race performance could be slightly more important, especially after 2022.

As quoted in Autosport Magazine, Adrian Newey initially mentioned how the team inculcated the philosophy of better race pace when they were developing the RB18 back in 2022.

"We’ve tried to concentrate on race performance over qualifying performance. That’s something we adopted as a philosophy when we were researching and designing the RB18."

Newey added that because the new aerodynamic regulations were going to promote closer racing and overtaking, performance during the main race was going to be much more important. He said:

"And that was really on the basis that it did look as if the aerodynamic regulation changes were going to make overtaking easier. And therefore, race performance would become relatively more important compared to qualifying had been previously. So, that was something we had to look at."

After the 2021 F1 season, the sport implemented major changes to the cars' aerodynamics, making it much simpler and more efficient. One of the main aims was to reduce the dirty air that hampers cars from following each other closely. As a result, teams came into 2022 with brand new chassis, of which Red Bull's RB18 came out on top.

In 2023, Red Bull won 21 out of 22 races but were not as dominant in qualifying sessions, bagging only 14 pole positions. Nonetheless, since their car was exceptional in race trim, they did not encounter any major issues and easily overtook their competitors.

Except for the 2023 F1 Singapore GP, Red Bull drivers won every single race in which they were unable to clinch pole position.

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Red Bull's legendary car designer on how he can picture airflow

Adrian Newey is, without a doubt, one of the best car designers in F1. Several of his cars have won world championships in the past and continue to do so in the present. Christian Horner has praised Newey multiple times, saying how he can see the airflow of an F1 car.

When the question about his abilities was asked in an interview with the BBC, Newey denied having supernatural powers but explained how he pictures aerodynamics. He said:

"No, of course not. 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."

Adrian Newey joined Red Bull in 2006 and helped the team win six constructors' world championships in total, along with seven drivers' world championships.