F1 | Adrian Newey “recognised the difficulties” of Red Bull, and aims to find a solution quickly, after coming back from bike injury
In an interview with Sky Germany, Red Bull’s advisor Helmut Marko revealed Newey was out of work due to a bike crash, and is back to work now, already figuring out the reasons behind the team’s recent struggles.
Adrian Newey is known to be an integral part of Red Bull’s success over the years, winning four consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ championships between 2010-2013, with Newey heading all of those projects. But in the first year of the team challenging for the title since 2013, things haven’t gone exactly to plan for the now Chief Technical Officer, as he suffered a bike incident earlier in the year, which resulted in him being out of work for several weeks. Helmut Marko confirmed this to Sky Germany, and expressed the importance of Newey for the whole team.
"We are well-positioned, but of course Newey is the figurehead. And his absence just from motivation is seen, and in the early stages we didn’t know how serious the injury is. He had to go through several operations.
"He is now not fully fit but is ready to do his job and has immediately recognised the difficulties we had here [Turkey] in terms of set-up."
This will be good news for the Milton Keynes outfit, who hasn’t led qualifying since the Dutch GP, when Max Verstappen stormed to pole in front of his passionate home crowd. Since that, Mercedes had the upper-hand at the last three rounds, in Monza, Sochi and Istanbul. Albeit Verstappen’s direct title rival Lewis Hamilton finished behind both Verstappen and Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas was never challenged by either Red Bull in what turned out to be a dominant win for the Finn.
It’s understood that Newey had a meeting with Verstappen to discuss and understand better some of the problems the team has faced lately with its car, according to the Marko’s words last week:
"There will be a meeting with Verstappen in the upcoming week in Milton Keynes so that we are back on top in terms of the chassis”, Marko said after the Turkish GP.
With just six rounds to go in the 2021 F1 championship, every improvement counts, and Red Bull will be pinning its hopes on the return of Newey being a salvation for its championship challenge, especially on the constructors’ championship, which Mercedes currently leads by 36 points. Max Verstappen leads the drivers’ championship by 6 points.
This. Team. 🤝 pic.twitter.com/Suzpa6UNDG
— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) October 11, 2021
