Newey: RBR need fast car, not star driver

The team's growing competitiveness, allied to their big budget, has led to speculation linking the team with a swoop for big-names like Michael Schumacher or Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.

But Newey, who is joining the outfit as chief technical officer on Monday, has told Autosport that the most important thing the team needs to do is make a quick car - and he thinks David Coulthard is the perfect man for them at the moment.

"At some stage that (attracting a big name driver) will obviously be our aspiration, but initially we'll want to continue to work with David and young drivers, be that Tonio Liuzzi, Christian Klien or whoever else, and bring the car forward," he said in an exclusive interview in this week's issue.

"Then it becomes much easier to attract one of the top drivers. Until you're at that point, you can't really do it. Regardless of salary, a top-five driver would only want to join a team if he thought he had a sensible shot of winning races and hopefully championships.

"If he's attracted for some other reason, such as finance, then we don't want him."

But despite his reservations about luring a superstar driver, Newey admitted he would love to have the opportunity of working with Schumacher, should the chance arise.

"It would be tremendous to work with Michael," added Newey. "He's one of the few great drivers I haven't had the opportunity or pleasure of working with, but our first goal has to be to develop the car.

"As I said, we have to start to prove that we can do that before we can sensibly attract a top driver."