(Motorsports news) Newey, whose top-flight career began in 1986 with a stay at Lola, has built grand prix vehicles that have won 12 constructors’ titles and 12 drivers’ titles for three teams. Notably, Williams won 10 races in 1992, including six 1-2s, and 12 races in 1996. After joining Red Bull in 2006 as chief technology officer, Newey oversaw cars that won 12 races in 2011 and 13 in 2013 when the calendar expanded to 19 rounds.

However, in an interview with F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Newey stated that the consistency attained by Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez aboard the RB19 this season still stands tall. “This has been our biggest run of success that I’ve certainly ever experienced,” added Newey, whose episode was recorded in Singapore when the Red Bull score was 14 wins.

“I’ve been fortunate to be involved in cars that have previously been dominant, but we’ve never had this level of consistency. People may believe that everything is now guaranteed and that everything will go well. In actuality, there are numerous things that can go wrong during a race.

The RB19’s wide operating window, which allows the car to adapt to a variety of circuits, has been critical to its success. This contrasts with Mercedes’ sensitive ‘zeropod’ architecture, which debuted with the W13 in 2022 and was directed by the peak downforce values the engineers could simulate.

Despite the stark disparity in idea from a team that had recently won eight constructors’ titles in a row, Newey said he had a ‘gut sense’ not to use the FIA cost cap to research Mercedes’ solution and compare it to Red Bull’s. “Even with all the tools we have now, there has to be some gut instinct,” he remarked.

“The reality is that even before the cost cap, we were still limited in terms of resources and people. We’ve never had the resources to thoroughly investigate an infinite number of different paths. As an example, with last year’s car, we obviously took an aerodynamic direction with the sidepod, design, and concept of the car, which was almost polar opposite to what Mercedes did.”

“Last year, Mercedes showed flashes of competitiveness.” They clearly won in Brazil. “Then you have to decide: ‘Do we start researching Mercedes in case we missed something, or do we stick with what we’re doing?'” “My gut feeling was to keep doing what we’re doing.”

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