Newey's life saved by Ecclestone and Horner: ''It was downright brutal''

One of the most successful Formula 1 designers ever, Adrian Newey, faced a tough personal battle. In mid-2021, the Briton had a serious cycling accident in Croatia in which he suffered a fractured skull. Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner came to his aid, which has prevented worse damage.

Newey explains in the Formula for Success podcast that the accident made him realise the importance of having good people around you. He was on holiday in Croatia with his partner and Bernie Ecclestone and his partner. Because of Ecclestone's good connections, Newey was quickly admitted to hospital in Croatia. "Mandy rang Bernie and said, look, this is not looking good. He's looking a bit grey, we need to get him admitted. So Bernie offered to put his boat on. We were in Croatia. So he then rang his ex, who ran the prime minister, who ran the...Head of neurosurgery, who is on holiday in Bosnia or something. But wheels moved to get me admitted very quickly. I was then admitted into this Croatian hospital in the capital."

Still, Newey was not at ease at the hospital in Croatia. "As a tourist, then it has a real Italian Mediterranean feel. It's very glamorous. You go to the hospital, you might as well have been in Stalingrad. It's kind of 1950s. It was all kind of porcelain tiles and that smell of disinfectant and absolutely stunning nurses. But they were completely brutal."

'Get me out of here'

As the doctors stood at his bedside and they discussed the operation, Newey came to a grim discovery. "About four o'clock in the afternoon, the three wise men came round at the end of my bed, which must have been the anaesthetist, the maxillofacial guy and the neurosurgeon. All quite young. One of them spoke reasonable English and said, as you know, you've fractured your skull and we need to operate very quickly because otherwise you could lose the use of your eye. I said, okay, well, 'what's involved in the operation?' 'Oh, we cut and replace and everything will be perfect.' 'All right.' 'And what's the risk of damage to the eye during the operation?' 'Oh, no risk at all.' Okay. 'And what's the risk of brain damage in the operation?' 'Oh, five, maybe 10%. At that point, I rang Mandy and said, for Christ sake, get me out of here. Bernie and Fabi and Christian and, and Joe Macari, in particular, they all swung into action and got me home and was operated back in the UK."