Robert Doornbos has shed light on his time as test driver for Red Bull, working with designer guru Adrian Newey. The former driver has opened up about a bizarre request he received from the British engineer.
Doornbos was the third and test driver for Red Bull Racing in 2006, and during that time, he did numerous runs for the Austrian team.
"As a test driver, you feel like a test dummy. And you have to test everything. The life of wings; the flexibility, if they will just destroy at the end of the straight because there's too much load on them.'"
Doornbos explained that he often came back into the pits after such a testing round, whereupon Newey would immediately tell him that the team would no longer use that wing, and then they moved on to the next. "That's what you do as a test driver."
Robert Doornbos in Zandvoort with Red Bull
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Newey's bizarre request
Once, Adrian Newey, then a designer at Red Bull, came up with an extremely bizarre request. "There was a day that Adrian said: 'What do you think of driving with your feet above each other?'"
"Can you imagine?," laughed Doornbos. "I mean, that's just not doable. But it shows the way he thinks outside of the box." The Rotterdam born driver actually followed Newey's instructions, but it was not successful.
"We tested it and he came back into the pit lane and he just wrote something in his notebook. And I was like: 'What are you writing down there?' he said: 'Well I'm going to change something in the car?' I said: 'What is it?' Newey said: 'It's between the engine and the steering wheel' and I said: 'That's me!'"
"It just shows that he's so intelligent, if he could exchange the driver for a computer he would also enjoy that."
The acclaimed designer is currently employed by Aston Martin and his focus, though very much on next year's car, is also lending a helping hand with the AMR25.
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