Formula 1 News: How Adrian Newey deals with all the fake rumors
F1 design guru Adrian Newey deals with rumors about him or his cars by not reading social media at all.
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Speaking during an appearance on Red Bull’s ‘Talking Bull’ podcast, as quoted by Formula1.com, Newey commented:
“That bit is very easy, because I don’t really read social media or I don’t particularly read magazines – that’s kind of something I stopped doing a long time ago.
“Back in my Leyton House days, the first car I did was in 1988 – showing my age, obviously! That was a good little car. Then in ’89 we completely messed it up, so I went from being this new hero in the F1 paddock on the engineering side to the idiot who was a one-hit wonder.
“I thought, well really, you can’t read the press when it’s good and then get upset about it when it’s poor, so at that point I sort of said, ‘Okay, just don’t read the press,’ said Newey
“Mandy, my wife, she does follow social media. She keeps me roughly informed of what’s going on, but I’m relatively oblivious to it. I just try to lead my life and not be influenced by it.”
“When I started, really it was with the aspiration and hope that at some point we could win a race.
“We won the race with Sebastian in his Toro Rosso in Monza in 2008, but it felt a slightly funny victory because it was our car, but it wasn’t our team. That first [Red Bull] victory in China in 2009 was quite a landmark.
“Then going on to that last race in Abu Dhabi in 2010 and winning the championship against the odds with Sebastian’s drive that weekend, and Ferrari’s mistake on the strategy – that was something I’ll never forget,” continued Newey.
“We had many close championships battles, 2012 went down to the last race as well, where Sebastian got spun around at the first corner and had a massive hole in the bodywork and stuff, but we managed to keep going and got that one.
“Then, of course, [Verstappen’s first title in] 2021, which, I think, will be talked about for many years. I think of all my years in motor racing, that was the most difficult year.”