03/07/2011
NEWS STORY
As his 2011 creation seemingly heads towards another couple of titles, Adrian Newey must turn his attention to his team's 2012 challenger.
Despite the best efforts of the FIA, and to a lesser extent his rival teams, Red Bull heads into the summer with both titles well on the way to being wrapped up. True, there is a change to the regulations due to come into force next weekend at Silverstone but the previous tweak in Valencia appeared to hurt McLaren more than the Milton Keynes team. Indeed, some are already suggesting that Charlie Whiting's tinkering with the regs has merely shown up how much McLaren was forced to borrow from Newey before the start of the season following its relatively poor pre-season test showing.
Having won numerous titles with three different teams, Newey admits to turning attention to next year's car whilst still refusing to let go of the reins in terms of this year's baby.
"We're at that time of the year where we've got to continue developing the RB7," he told ESPN. "We're not even half way though the championship yet so we've got to keep pushing, but of course we've also now got to start thinking of next year's car so it's that two hat role now."
As the F1 circus heads to Silverstone, effectively the half-way point of the season, where the off-throttle diffuser ban comes into affect, Newey admits that it's impossible to tell how it will affect the grid.
"We have a rough idea yes," he said of the bearing the rule change will have on his team, "but what we're not clear on is whether all engines are being penalised by the same amount or not and then obviously if it will affect some cars more than others… In terms of the rest of the season it certainly gives us a bit of work in terms of making sure that we operate the car as efficiently as possible."
Despite the fact that several of his contemporaries appear to be caught up in a game of musical chairs, Newey, who is regarded as the holy grail in terms of F1 designers, is happy where he is, admitting that he is content to see out his career with the Austrian team.
"I think as far as my Formula One career goes then I'm very happy at Red Bull and I really can't see myself moving anywhere else," he said. "What I'll do at some point in the future I've got no idea at the moment. I can't see myself doing anything else within motorsport particularly, I think if I was going to do something different it would be something very different."