Why Red Bull's Mexico victory underlined a time-tested Newey strength

Within the 30 years since an Adrian Newey-designed Formula 1 car first won a race, the championship's landscape has changed significantly.

In 1991, when Newey’s FW14 first won at the Mexican Grand Prix thanks to the endeavours of Riccardo Patrese, F1 was embarking on the road to becoming a more professional, technologically advanced battleground. In the following years, the deadwood teams had been slashed and burned. Their demise and the boom in budgets paved the way for the mid-2000s manufacturer expansion, which imploded only a few seasons later ahead of F1’s cultural shift to a more accessible, fan-friendly and franchised championship.

Aerodynamic regulations have come and gone in that time, but Newey’s presence at the top end of the F1 order has remained largely constant, barring a few transitional years at the start of his Red Bull tenure. These days, Newey is considerably less involved in the minutiae of F1 car design, but his influence is still keenly felt at Red Bull. The design office that he leads is, naturally, full of Newey disciples – ever receptive to his aerodynamic teachings and insight.

One of Newey’s key crusades in F1 has been his never-ending pursuit of downforce. More downforce yields more cornering speed, more traction, and more confidence lining the drivers’ back pockets. It’s a drive that has permeated Newey’s career, from his formative days at Wolf and March, to his hugely successful stints with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull. Even if Newey is less hands-on today, Red Bull still holds that ethos close to its heart.

When Sebastian Vettel was chalking up victories and titles between 2010 and 2013, Red Bull’s cars had the most downforce by far. They were often among the slowest in the speed traps, with drag proving to be a consistent thorn in the team’s side, but it usually didn’t matter; back then, Vettel could freely collect pole positions and waltz off into the distance, confident that his car could acquiesce to any demands he placed upon it.

The turbo-hybrid era stripped Red Bull of its crown and handed Mercedes its so-far unbeaten stranglehold on the F1 titles. The Brixworth-designed powertrains were the jewel in Mercedes’ crown, and even if the team’s aero package fluctuated wildly in effectiveness from season to season, there was seldom a concerted charge from an opponent across an entire championship.

But 2021 has changed that, and Mexico – a little over 30 years on from a Newey-designed car proving victorious - displayed why Red Bull’s desire to stay true to its Newey-defined technical roots can truly pay off once again.

PLUS: Why the intensity of F1 2021’s title fight plays into Red Bull’s ethos

In Newey, Red Bull has one of F1's most enduringly successful engineers

Photo by: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Red Bull has always been good at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Even during the turbulent days of its fraught relationship with Renault, perhaps barring the miserable 2015 season, Red Bull has consistently been a very real threat to Mercedes at the Mexican circuit. That’s largely due to the unique characteristics of hosting a race 2250m above sea level, as many a commentator and pundit frequently attests to during F1’s visits to Mexico City.

Air is a precious commodity for an F1 car: the engine requires it for the combustion process, the radiators and powertrain need it for cooling, and the aerodynamics...well, the clue’s in the name. At Mexico City’s altitude, air density drops to about 78% of that observed at sea level. This means that atmospheric pressure is reduced as a result, thus pervading the city with “thinner air”. Hence why, despite the Mexico circuit’s long straights, teams bolt on their highest-downforce aero packages for the race, used previously at Monaco and Hungary.

This is where events favour a Newey design concept. Red Bull's legacy of leading the grid in the downforce stakes has been somewhat masked by the various powertrain-related unease across the turbo-hybrid era, but Monaco, Mexico and Hungary have been the team’s best chances of victory in the previous few seasons. And that’s all down to how the cars carry themselves in high-downforce trim.

One of Red Bull’s greatest hallmarks is the extreme level of rake it runs relative to the other cars on the grid. By jacking up the rear of the car, the front of the floor tray effectively works in a manner akin to covering a garden hose with your thumb; the front builds up a high level of pressure on the top surface, which equalises by creating a faster-moving current of air under the floor. The diffuser space is also effectively enlarged, adding further downforce. This is a somewhat drag-laden solution to the car, and in the past, the power units haven’t been able to offset that.

Everything that Red Bull displayed in Mexico in terms of aero performance is due to Newey’s influence on the team’s design philosophy. Of course, there’s a vast team of excellent professionals under his and Pierre Wache’s leadership, but they’ve been moulded by the system to prioritise outright downforce

But since Honda hooked up with the Red Bull family after its acrimonious divorce with McLaren, the Japanese manufacturer has gone from strength to strength and now rivals Mercedes in the power stakes. The 2021 powertrain is its best offering yet in this era, and the change to this year’s aerodynamic formula – namely, the cuts to the floor – has not hindered Red Bull as much as the low-rake Mercedes cars. It’s all been a perfect storm for the team.

At Monaco this year, Max Verstappen was largely unchallenged. Hungary wasn’t able to yield the rewards promised, as the Mercedes snared the front row against the run of play; Verstappen had been fastest in Q1 and Q2, but Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas found some pace in reserve when it mattered. Verstappen was then caught up in the Bottas-precipitated Turn 1 melange, but managed to plod home in ninth with a somewhat shredded floor.

In those two grands prix, high-downforce packages are run because the maximum speeds are so low. The downforce produced increases with the square of velocity but, since velocity is reduced in those instances, teams must consider increasing the other variables to make that up. Thus, they select the parts with the highest coefficient of downforce and with the biggest available size to make that up.

High downforce set-up also helped Verstappen to victory at Monaco

Photo by: Erik Junius

That’s visibly clear from the size of Red Bull’s highest-downforce rear wing. Compared to the Mercedes, it’s a significantly deeper geometry. Because drag isn’t really a concern at the slow circuits, the car can benefit more from a substantial rear wing that’s going to deliver the traction needed to exit the corners with a greater turn of pace.

Mexico, despite running to the same aero package specifics, is a different prospect. It’s a quicker circuit and, as mentioned previously, the thinner air reduces that atmospheric pressure – another variable in the downforce equation. Although the square of velocity will run through a range more typical of the higher-speed tracks, the reduced pressure necessitates the increased downforce coefficient to cover it.

The increased speeds did yield one fly in the ointment for Red Bull, in that the stresses placed on the rear wing - at velocities it wasn’t designed to run at - caused a few cracks in the top plane. Red Bull’s mechanics were seen wrapping the outboard parts of the wing, at which it attaches to the structural inserts, in tape to strengthen it. It was amusing to see the juxtaposition in high-tech F1 design and low-tech sticky tape to provide a temporary fix, but it was enough cause for concern for Red Bull’s PRs to spuriously deny the cracks existed.

Whether it had a factor in Red Bull’s inability to maximise its qualifying potential is currently unknown; Christian Horner was quite keen to shuffle the blame onto Yuki Tsunoda, who had tried to get out of the way of the rampaging Bulls in the final Q3 laps. Whichever way one cuts it, Verstappen and Sergio Perez should have locked out the front row, given the ease at which the Red Bull RB16B could glide through the circuit.

But that was made up for in the race. Verstappen’s latent pace at the front fully exhibited Red Bull’s strengths, having oodles of downforce to confidently pull away from Hamilton. When Hamilton asked where he was losing time, race engineer Pete Bonnington drew his attention to a particular set of corner exits. In that, it can be deduced that Red Bull’s downforce advantage was such that Verstappen could simply stamp his right foot to the floor early and scamper further down the road.

PLUS: Why Verstappen was untouchable after "crucial" Mexican GP Turn 1 pass

So why didn’t Mercedes strap on a bigger rear wing to counter Red Bull? The simple answer is that the W12 was designed with a slightly smaller wing in mind to maximise its straightline performance. The two teams run to different concepts, with Mercedes opting for a slightly shallower wing but with the rewards of a more consistent aero platform. Red Bull's concept simply allows for a bigger wing and relies a little more on the power unit to get it up to speed.

Everything that it displayed in Mexico in terms of aero performance is due to Newey’s influence on the team’s design philosophy. Of course, there’s a vast team of excellent professionals under his and Pierre Wache’s leadership, but they’ve been moulded by the system to prioritise outright downforce. For 2021, that’s been a hugely important factor in the title battle – just as it was between 2009 and 2013.

Back then, Vettel was stringing together record-beating runs of victories with consummate ease, driving a car built to Newey’s tenets. Today, Verstappen has Red Bull’s best chance of winning a first title since the turbo-hybrid era began in 2014 – again, driving a car moulded by the Adrian Newey school of thought. The apple truly doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Newey was assigned to collect the constructors' trophy in Mexico, and rewarded with a faceful of champagne for his trouble

Photo by: Mark Thompson/Getty Images