Has Newey LOST it!!

[Roamy]

Seems the Mclaren is going better now that Newey left and Red Bull has turned into Red Steer. Maybe the world has passed him by and it sounds like he can't drive worth sh!t either!!

[leopard]

McLaren is going better without him, but with him I think they are supposed to be better than now.

[Ranger]

He's been a bit hit and miss over the past few years.

with McLaren:
2003 - hit - championship contender, though no title.
2004 - miss - nowhere
2005 - hit - championship contender with 10 wins, but neither title

It's not insignificant that the first McLaren that Newey didn't design since 1998, the MP4-21 of 2006, didn't record any victories at all.

So this year would be one of those "miss" years. Remember also that building a good car is no one-man-effort either.

This year's effort may be a disappointment but he certainly hasn't become crap in the year and a half after designing the car that won more than half the races it contested.

[raikk]

He's been a bit hit and miss over the past few years.

with McLaren:
2003 - hit - championship contender, though no title.
2004 - miss - nowhere
2005 - hit - championship contender with 10 wins, but neither title

It's not insignificant that the first McLaren that Newey didn't design since 1998, the MP4-21 of 2006, didn't record any victories at all.

So this year would be one of those "miss" years. Remember also that building a good car is no one-man-effort either.

This year's effort may be a disappointment but he certainly hasn't become crap in the year and a half after designing the car that won more than half the races it contested.

that was designed by him... it was a Newey car because it was created in 05 when he was still onboard with Mclaren... Give him a little bit.. RedBull will start to rise up me thinks..

[truefan72]

The problem with Newey at RBR is that he has been given carte blanche with the car withouth a solid mechanical engineer there to counterbalance his overzealous aero development of the car. Throughout his tenure at McClaren, he had to share the design decision making process with top mechanical engineer. That kept him slighty in check.

Now at RBR without that counterbalance, the design of the car through the strong lense of an aero/CFD guy greatly influences the performance/reliabilty of the vehicle.

[ChrisS]

Newey did his best work when he was working with Patrick Head at Williams.

Newey always pusses to the very limit and can sometimes go over it, Head was there to keep the balance, with no-one doing that now, Newey can go too far.

BTW 2003 was not a hit for their car, in was a huge miss, the McLaren MP4-18 never even got to race and the team instead used an updated version of the 2002 McLaren MP4-17

[jens]

Before the winter testing a lot of people were saying that Red Bull is going to be the surprise of the year. I'm still wondering, what is the surprise. That they have scored in 3 races out of 12? :D So far they have scored as many points as last year, which was declared as a failure and was left there after half a season...

Probably it's not all about Newey. I have also some doubts that some decisions made in the management could have been better. Probably they have to ask former Jaguar boss Pitchforth, how did they manage to create such a good car for them for 2005. :p :

About McLaren's 2006 car. Yes, Newey had influence there, but maybe... he didn't put quite a 100% effort to make it a very competitive car knowing that he was going to leave the team quite soon...

[Hawkmoon]

I've always thought Newey to a little over-rated. Rory Byrne's record as a designer is just as good, if not better, than Newey's yet he rarely gets mentioned in the same breath. It's probably got something to do with Byrne and Ross Brawn being such a great team.

I'm not really surprised that Red Bull are still struggling as I don't think that Newey is as good a Technical Director as he is an aerodynamicist.

As somebody mentioned, he did his best work with Patrick Head as Tech Director and I think he needs someone like Head, or perhaps Brawn, to free him up to concentrate on his aero stuff and leave the people management to others.

[ratonmacias]

rome wasnt built in one day, i think that rbr's structure was lacking in several departments thats why last year they had several signings incluiding some of newey`s former workmates. then this year they brought in geoff willis who made a great job in 2004.

if they dont do better in 2008 then he should start to worry.

i also think rbr has crap drivers so maybe the car is better but this drivers dont show its true form.