"The most successful designer in F1 history"- 2-time world champion hails Adrian Newey for Red Bull's successful season

Two-time F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen has credited designer Adrian Newey for Red Bull's stupendous success this season.

Newey has been around F1 for many decades and has built numerous title-winning cars. That includes Hakkinen's championship-winning McLaren cars in 1998 and 1999.

In his weekly blog on Unibet, Hakkinen wrote:

"I am very happy for Red Bull’s technical boss Adrian Newey. It was thanks to his work at McLaren that I had great cars with which to win both my World Championship titles, and he is still winning at Red Bull all these years later."

Hailing Newey's technical leadership, Hakkinen continued:

"He really is the most successful designer in F1 history, and although I know he has a great team of design engineers working with him, his technical leadership is just brilliant. Even during Mercedes’ dominant years, Red Bull remained competitive, and it’s amazing to see Adrian’s team take advantage of this year’s new regulations to win another title. Congratulations to him.”

The 'Flying Finn' also complimented Red Bull driver Max Verstappen for his performance in the rain-marred Japanese GP in Suzuka, where he clinched his second world title.

Hakkinen said that it was the kind of race F1 drivers dream about when going for the title. Talking about the Dutchman's performance, Hakkinen said:

“This was a fantastic performance by Max, the kind of race you dream about when going for the World Championship title. He said before the weekend that he just wanted it to be perfect, especially following the problems he and the team had in Singapore a week ago. Pole position wasn’t easy – only 0.01s fastest than Charles’s Ferrari! – but Max managed to pull the lap together really well.”

Verstappen has clinched the title with four races to go, joining Germans Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel as the only drivers to do so.

---

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was in a class of his own at Suzuka - Mika Hakkinen

Talking about Verstappen's performance in Suzuka, Hakkinen said that there were key similarities to karting, as the Dutchman took the outside line at the start. Following that, Verstappen was virtually unstoppable and in a league of his own. Hakkinen said:

“His race start was incredible because it looked as though Charles had taken the lead, but Max has so much confidence and held on. You can use that outside line at the first corner in the wet. It’s typical of what a kart racer can do, and Max used all his experience to take control and put Charles behind."

The Finn said that Verstappen's margin of victory (27 seconds) in a race that barely went 50% of the scheduled laps was incredible. He continued:

"From then on, he was in a class of his own – really on top of the car. To win by 27 seconds after such a short race was brilliant. Max’s 12th win of the year really shows how much he deserved this year’s World Championship – he dominated.”

The two-time world champion now has 12 wins for the season. He has four races to emulate or surpass Schumacher and Vettel's record of most wins in a season (13).