Adrian Newey

Newey at the 1992 Portuguese Grand Prix

**Adrian Martin Newey** (born 26 December 1958) is a British Formula One engineer.

## Early life and career

He was born in Colchester, Essex, England on 26 December 1958 to Richard and Edwina Newey. His father was a veterinarian and his mother was an ambulance driver during the Second World War. He attended Repton public school alongside motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson. Newey was asked to leave Repton at the age of 16 after an incident at a Greenslade concert at Repton's 19th-century Pears School Building organised by the school's sixth formers, where he pushed up the sound levels on the band's mixer, cracking the building's stained glass windows. Newey gained a first class honours degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Southampton in 1980. Immediately after graduation he began working in motorsport for the Fittipaldi Formula One team under Harvey Postlethwaite. In 1981, he joined the March team. After a period as a race engineer for Johnny Cecotto in European Formula Two Newey began designing racing cars. His first project, the March GTP sports car, was a highly successful design and won the IMSA GTP title two years running.

## CART career

In 1984, Newey moved to the March Indy car project, working as designer and race engineer for Bobby Rahal at Truesports. Newey formed a close friendship with Rahal. Newey's March 85C design won the 1985 CART championship in the hands of Al Unser, and the 1985 Indianapolis 500 with Danny Sullivan. In 1986 Newey moved to Kraco to engineer Michael Andretti's car, while his March 86C design won the CART title and 1986 Indianapolis 500 with Bobby Rahal.

At the end of 1986 Newey joined the Haas Lola F1 team in an effort to improve its fortunes, but the team withdrew at the conclusion of the 1986 season. After a spell at Newman-Haas in 1987 working as Mario Andretti's race engineer, Newey was re-hired by March, this time to work in Formula One as chief designer.

## Formula One career

### March/Leyton House (1988–1990)

Newey's first F1 design, the 1988 March 881, was far more competitive than many expected. As March became Leyton House Racing in 1990, Newey gained promotion to the role of technical director. Newey was fired after the 1990 Mexican Grand Prix. Newey later said: "I was fired but I'd already made up my mind I was going – because once a team gets run by an accountant, it's time to move. Your self-confidence does suffer but Williams had approached me."

### Williams (1991–present)

Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, Williams was a top running team, and technical director Patrick Head wasted no time in getting a contract signed. With a vastly superior budget, drivers and resources at his disposal, Newey and Head rapidly became the dominant design partnership of the early 1990s. By mid-season 1991, Newey's FW14 chassis was every bit a match for the previously dominant McLaren. In 1992, there would be no problems, and Nigel Mansell took the drivers' crown.

## Personal life

Newey's first wife was Amanda, a nurse, and they had two daughters Charlotte (b. 1986) and Hannah (b. 1989). They married in 1983 and separated in 1989. He married his second wife Marigold in 1992.

## Notes

1. ↑ Adrian Martin NEWEY.
2. ↑ Adrian Newey. FIA World Endurance Championship.
3. ↑ Adrian Newey OBE. British Racing Drivers' Club.
4. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Newey, Adrian (November 2017). *How to Build a Car*. HarperCollins Publishers. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-00-819680-6.
5. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Batra, Ruhi. "Newey giving shape to Red Bull dreams". *wikipedia:The Times of India*. Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
6. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Cary, Tom (21 March 2011). "Red Bull designer Adrian Newey still ahead of the game". *The Daily Telegraph*. London. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
7. ↑ Adrian Newey and Bobby Rahal.
8. ↑ Red Bull Racing Adrian Newey :: Red Bull.
9. ↑ McRae, Donald (16 May 2011). Why Adrian Newey just cannot bear to watch the new Senna movie. *The Guardian*.
10. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Newey, Adrian (November 2017). *How to Build a Car*. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 64, 84, 121. ISBN 978-0-00-819680-6.
11. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Newey, Adrian (November 2017). *How to Build a Car*. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 64, 121. ISBN 978-0-00-819680-6.