Horner: 'I had to wrestle with Ron Dennis for Newey's drawing board'

In 2006, Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner managed to wrangle Adrian Newey into joining the team - it turned out to be an essential ingredient for success. Recently, Horner spoke enthusiastically about Newey at Red Bull podcast Talking Bull.

The English engineer managed to design a few cars on his drawing board that ensured ground-breaking performances, and Horner calls the Englishman instrumental to Red Bull's success. “He has been the conductor of the technical orchestra for all these years now, but he is still very hands on. He works in a different way to perhaps other technical leaders.”

Fight over the drawing board

Horner also laughed at Newey's authentic way of working: “He is still at his drawing board, I think it’s probably the only drawing board in Formula 1. I had to argue with Ron Dennis to wrestle it out of McLaren.”

The team boss also sees Newey as an inspiration to the team, highlighting how the engineer creates the "shapes" and "philosophy" within the team. "There is so much [inspiration] for [the team] to draw upon," he said.

Retirement

Questions were already circulating shortly about what will happen once Newey reaches the retirement age of 65, but it seems the Englishman is leaving such a philosophy and impact with the team that there is no reason to panic.