Williams: letting Newey go was “a mistake”
Adrian Newey worked for the Williams F1 team from 1990 to 1997 before joining McLaren. Sir Frank Williams, the head of the eponymous team, believes he made a mistake in letting such a talented engineer leave.
Sir Frank Williams, the head of the Williams F1 team, recently admitted that letting Adrian Newey go in 1997 was a mistake. The now very famous designer of the Red Bull joined the Williams team in 1990 and, notably under Newey’s influence, the Grove team won numerous titles.
The single-seaters designed by Newey enabled Williams to secure four drivers’ titles—in 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1997—as well as five constructors’ titles in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1997. However, during the 1997 season, Adrian Newey left Williams to join the McLaren team.
He enabled McLaren to win several titles, but his real tour de force was achieved with Red Bull. Indeed, at the end of 2005, he announced his departure from McLaren to join Red Bull Racing, to everyone’s surprise. However, the gamble paid off, and he notably helped the Austrian team win all four titles in play in 2010 and 2011.
While Williams has been experiencing difficult times for a few years, Sir Frank Williams reflected on Newey’s departure and believes that letting go of such a genius was a mistake.
« He wanted shares (of the team) that I did not want to give him at that time. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake. Adrian is a remarkable person, » Williams admitted to the magazine F1 Racing.
But even without Newey, Williams is convinced that their team will be able to turn things around as early as this season because they have identified the errors of previous cars.
I am not an engineer, but I have seen many good and bad cars – and ours was simply not fast enough. It had shortcomings in all the areas that matter, but we had even more shortcomings in the most important one, aero. And maybe a little with engine power (from Cosworth). It just wasn’t a fast car.
The arrival of a new engine supplier – Renault – and three people directly related to the design or management of the single-seaters makes Sir Frank Williams optimistic for the 2012 season.
The Renault engine gives us hope. We have three new people – one of them is our technical director (Mike Coughlan), the second our aero chief (Jason Sommerville), and the last one manages our single-seaters (Mark Gillan). They come from different backgrounds, from three different teams, added Sir Frank Williams.
