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Q & A with Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey's Red Bull Racing RB5 is so far the only car that has beaten the invariably dominated Brawns in 2009 - and it has not even got one of the double diffusers seen as such a big advantage yet

As his team prepared to continue the chase of Jenson Button in the Spanish Grand Prix, Newey met the press to discuss his team's start and its title challenge.

Q. How satisfied are you with the start to the season for Red Bull Racing?

Adrian Newey: Obviously, pleased. Whenever you have a regulation change as big as we have just had, then you work away through the research period - which for us started in earnest last April. You are kind of working blind, as we didn't have any people leave or join so we didn't know what other people were doing or what they were achieving. You know what you've done, but you don't know how that compares to everyone else.

From the pre-season the car looked good in as much that it was performing as expected. There were no nasty shocks or surprises, which sometimes happens. Once we confirmed that, then we just tried to have a quiet pre-season. We didn't try to do any sort of showboat times or anything. So it wasn't really until we got to Melbourne that we quite knew where we were going to be, so the fact that through the first four races we have been competitive has been quite a relief.

Q. Are you going to introduce your double diffuser in Monaco? Looking at the way your car is built, is it a big challenge?

AN: It is. The double diffuser concept doesn't sit that easy with the packaging and aerodynamics of our car so it hasn't been easy to get something that is a step forward in performance. We are intending to have something for Monaco. It is a double diffuser by name and obviously all that really means is it has an aperture that has been declared legal. But how you go about doing that and how you put it on your car, you will see a lot of variations on that theme through the year.

Q. Is adding the diffuser all gain, or will you lose some of the benefits of your rear end packaging?

AN: It is a benefit to the car. I guess what we don't know because we haven't tried to integrate it onto a car that has a push rod suspension, we don't know if we would have gained more if we had a push rod. The goal has been how we adapt it to our car.

Q. In previous years you've talked about going to other sports, like yachting, and leaving F1. Has the challenge of the new rules topped up your enthusiasm?

AN: What I have generally said is that since I graduated out of university then my whole career has been in motor racing. I would like at some stage to have done something else rather than just retiring finally having only ever been in motor racing, and I would still like to do that. I don't know exactly when that will be, but at some stage I would like to try my hand at something else.

The yachting idea really came from the fact that what I found fascinating about motor racing is that it is one of the very few sports where you have the blend of technology and the sportsmen - in this case obviously the driver. If you go outside the motor racing in the broadest umbrella, so including rallying and motorcycling perhaps, there are very few sports where you have that mixture, but yachting is one of them. I like these big rule changes, I find them stimulating.

Previous to this year the biggest change we had of any significance was 2005 when the front wing was raised and the diffusers were restricted more, which was a sort of medium size change. Before that, you really have to go back to 1998 before we had the last largest change. I think when you have a period of high regulatory stability then it becomes more of an evolutionary numbers game - it is how many iterations you can do. They are not necessarily clever iterations, they are just lots of iterations, whereas I prefer the solutions that are think about it and not have to do so many iterative steps.

Q. Is there scope for a big jump forward this season then while people come to terms with the intricacies of the new regulations?

AN: There is scope yes, but whether any of us find it or not is another matter. When you have regulations that are such a big change and in terms of operating the cars we are only three months into, then yes there has to be the chance for some big steps still to come.

Q. Is it an incremental process, or can you find something big?

AN: Generally it will be incremental, but there is a chance because we are still at a relatively low level of understanding of the overall package that there perhaps are some large fruits still to pick.

Q. Where do you see parallels between now and 1998, in the way you approach your work and the way development goes on during the season?

AN: I guess if you go back to 1998, the biggest change is how much the teams have grown since. I can't remember at McLaren in 1998 how many people we had, but I am guessing it was probably 250-300 people. We have now got teams - and Honda were I think up to 750 people before they chopped down a bit.

Teams are over double the size of what they were 10 years ago, and that just means far more resource, far more engineering resource in particular. At McLaren in 1998, we had one wind tunnel which we operated about 12 hours a day for five days a week. Now some teams have two wind tunnels operating 24/7 - so there is maybe as much as four times as much wind tunnel testing going on as 10 years ago. Those are the big changes, and it potentially means the rate of development is faster because the size of your research team is what governs how quickly you can develop.

Q. Would you find operating under a budget cap stimulating as an engineer?

AN: I think budget caps are great, as long as they don't turn out like communism. Communism or socialism is fantastic in theory but doesn't seem to work very well in practice historically. In Russia you always had the one guy driving a Lada and the other guy driving a Mercedes Benz, but still on the same pay theoretically. That would be what concerns me about budget capping.

For a small independent team, it probably works very well. It is easy to control and easy to police, but if you have a manufacturer whose business is linked with other areas, then how do you police it and how do you stop discounting of components? It is great in theory, but I worry about that if we do go down that route that we don't end up with all sorts of bickering and allegations of cheating because that is always the least enjoyable side of this sport when that happens.

Q. What do you think about the possibility of two sets of rules?

AN: I don't think that is very practical.

Q. With the new diffuser in the car, do you need to change the rear suspension in your car from pull rod to push rod?

AN: Well if we do, then we won't have a double diffuser this year because that would take us a year to do. We can put a double diffuser on, although arguably it won't perhaps be quite as effective as it would be had we designed the gearbox around it, but that is where we are.

Q. Do you think your team has the strength to fight until the end for the championship? Or do you think you might suffer from a lack of experience?

AN: I think from a resource side then we are clearly smaller than some of our rivals, but from a hunger and drive side of it then we are going to keep pushing, so what can I say? History will tell in the future.

Q. Are the regulations at such a stage that the clever designs like the Brawn and Red Bull can still overcome the money that Ferrari and BMW can throw at development?

AN: That is what we are hoping, yes.

Q. But are you worried they will simply throw lots of cash at their cars?

AN: They will, but I suppose one of the things about getting a bit of success is it gives the team confidence. Red Bull Technology, we did win a race last year obviously at Monza, but I think when the cars are in the same place as the design office, it gives people a bit more confidence. It is more immediate.

It is a funny thing about winning races. When you are not winning then it looks an impossible task and you can feel sometimes a bit deflated that you can't seem to win a race. If you do win a race you don't feel you are doing anything differently. You have suddenly won a race and it is the old saying - it gets your monkey off your back. From the people at Milton Keynes, who were at Jaguar and are now at Red Bull, we shed that monkey in a way that perhaps they feel it more than when we won the race at Monza last year.

Q. You have spent time getting things in place. Is Red Bull now a top team?

AN: It is a team that has been a top team for the last four races, and as we all know motor racing is a fast changing business so the challenge now is trying to keep it there.

Q. Are you 100 per cent certain the diffuser will be ready for Monaco, or is it still undecided?

AN: It is very tight for us, I must say. We are hoping to have it there.

Q. Does having the first day of practice on Thursday add an extra complication?

AN: It takes 24 hours off your normal schedule.

Q. So it is that tight it could make the difference?

AN: Yes, it is touch and go.

Q. Obviously if it is not in Monaco then will it go for Turkey?

AN: Yes, Turkey.

Q. Will it definitely be on two cars only if you introduce it, or could it only be on one car?

AN: We might well run it on one car on Thursday, and then put it on the other car if it performs correctly. One of the things we don't have is an aero test between now and then, where we will be able to test it. When you put something as different as that on the car then you want to know it is performing as you expect it to. Monaco is hardly a proper runway test facility.

Q. How important is the weight issue for drivers?

AN: For me, what will be logical would be for the drivers to have a minimum weight including the seat. If you take someone like Mark Webber or Robert Kubica and you weigh them with their seat, and that becomes your minimum combined weight - then the lighter drivers would have to carry a bit of seat ballast. They would still get a small benefit because the ballast would have a lower centre of gravity than the taller drivers, but I think it would bring it closer.

That seems to have been met with resistance. One theory that has been put forward by an old colleague of mine from a former team was that the lighter drivers would then be penalised because they are not as strong, but that same colleague has gone on record as saying that Alain Prost recorded the highest ever brake pressure and I don't remember him being the strongest person ever.

Q. Sebastian Vettel has emerged as a bit of a star. How is it working with him?

AN: With Sebastian you have to pinch yourself to remember how young he is, to be honest. In the way he presents himself, in the way he drives the car, and tells you about his car and the debriefs and so forth, he has a much older set of shoulders on him that is apparent. He is a very intelligent young lad, and shows huge potential. He is also a very nice guy. There is no edge to him that you sometimes find with such a top driver.

Q. What would your ideal period be to work in F1, given that the rules are changing all the time?

AN: I don't have one, to be perfectly honest. When I came to Red Bull I said the reason for coming here, as opposed to staying at McLaren, was because I felt that in Williams and McLaren I had been privileged enough to work for two great teams that had already had a track record of winning races and championships, and hopefully when I joined those respective teams I was able to bring something to the design side. In terms of the logistics of the company, the way it ran itself, they clearly had that all in place.

In coming to Red Bull, it is almost unfinished business compared to my Leyton House days. A small team that we had been trying to grow and get to the front. Leyton House ran into financial difficulties and it stopped early. I wanted the chance again to be involved in a team that was young and I could be centrally involved in working with Christian [Horner] and the existing team members in growing that team to something that would hopefully be a race-winning team.

Q. You seem to have been fighting Ross Brawn for the last 15 years for the championship, through different teams and different roles. What are your feelings on that?

AN: We do seem to be clashing against each other on track, which is great isn't it? I think it is interesting that we end up that way, because whilst at various times we occupy the same job title, the way we go about doing the job could hardly be more different. So I guess it is quite interesting that despite that very different approach, both approaches appear to deliver the results.

Q. What would your CV look like if he hadn't been around?

AN: It would be boring!

Q. How do you define the difference in your approaches?

AN: Ross is obviously a gifted engineer, but you need to speak to him about how he runs his technical teams. From what I hear though, he takes a fairly managerial approach to engineering and the job of technical director. Whereas my interest and strength has never been management to be perfectly honest. What I love and what gets me up is design, in the broadest sense of the word. I don't just mean mechanical design, but also aerodynamics and the overall performance package of the car. That is what I find exciting about motor racing. I like being hands on.

Q. Given the overall performance of individual teams in the first few races, are you surprised?

AN: I think there has been more of a change of order than I expected. We all knew that with such a big regulation change the established grid order, if you like, of the last few years was more likely to change than normal. But I didn't expect it to be quite as much as it has been.

Q. Which has been the biggest upset - positive or negative - that you have seen?

AN: Well, I don't think there is an individual surprise. The last few years have been Ferrari and McLaren slugging it out with BMW Sauber just behind, so for the first four races with that not being the case as Ferrari, McLaren and BMW have almost been struggling to make Q3, it is a bigger change than I would have expected.

Q. Does it surprise you that the KERS cars are struggling so much, or did you expect it? And does that influence your decision about when you run it?

AN: The KERS performance has been about where we expected it from simulation, so that is why pre-season we tried to run it to establish its basic reliability. But it is quite a complicated technology, honestly. Strategically it is great, as we have seen. For overtaking it is a very powerful piece of technology, but in terms of absolute lap time it is much more neutral. And the problem we have, certainly with Mark as one of our drivers, is that it is very difficult for us to get under the weight limit with the KERS on the car.

We really didn't want to get into the route that BMW have gone of running it on their lighter driver and not on their heavier driver, because the feedback, in terms of how the cars are handling and the comparison between your two cars throughout a race weekend, especially with so little testing, for me is very important. So to have the cars in two completely different specs is something that I didn't want us to do if we could possibly avoid it.

Q. So it is very unlikely that you will run it this year?

AN: It really depends how many other teams run KERS. The more teams that run KERS, the more difficult it becomes because the more exposed you can be in terms of being out dragged down to the first corner and that sort of thing.

Q. Are there particular tracks where you really have to have it?

AN: No. KERS obviously suits some tracks more than others, but it is a not a huge effect.

Q. Are you driving Le Mans this year?

AN: No, lack of time I am afraid!

Q. You've been in the position before of winning races and fighting for the championship. From where you are now, is this a team that can win the world championship this year?

AN: It's too early to think about that to be perfectly honest. My attitude in this position is always let's just keep our head down and not worry about what everyone else is doing or saying, and concentrate on doing the best job we can and see where it takes us.

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