Villeneuve explains why he believes Newey has a superpower

Jacques Villeneuve has praised Adrian Newey who is known in Formula 1 as one of the best technical directors of all time, if not the best. He is currently incredibly successful with Red Bull Racing, but in the past, the Austrian team's chief technical officer has also had successes with other teams. Villeneuve spoke to Si.com about his experience with Newey.

Before joining Red Bull, Newey worked for March/Leyton House Racing, Williams, and McLaren. He achieved success at the latter two, in particular. At Williams, the team won four drivers' championships. Mika Hakkinen won two titles with a McLaren car built by Newey.

'Newey is the best there is'

Villeneuve also owes his world title partly to the car built by Red Bull's current CTO. Although the Briton was no longer running for Williams in 1997, the car was built by him. Villeneuve said: "He was amazing because I guess he can visualize the car, he can see it, he can see the airflow. And he relates to it but he also relates to the driver. He knows it's not a computer driving. He knows it's not a robot. So even if on the data, the numbers say this is how quick it could be, maybe a driver cannot drive it. It doesn't feel natural."

Villeneuve continued: "He's able to accept that and work around and work with a driver. And that’s why he's made so many amazing cars. He is definitely the best out there, and he has always been able to reinvent himself."

"We saw that because he designed a ‘97 car based on ‘96 and by the end [it was] based on what I was feeding him because I was going to be the driver of the following year. But then he left and we felt it because halfway through the season, we were nowhere. It took a while for the new people involved to get the ball rolling again. It's hard to beat that combination of Adrian Newey," concluded the 1997 world champion.