Newey exclusive: Here's his vision for the future of F1

Over the course of his career, Adrian Newey gave life and form to many ideas for what, from his point of view, would be his vision of the best Formula 1 car, including the famous Red Bull X2010 created for Gran Turismo. This was a 1400hp enthusiast's car, which beat the Suzuka track record by around 20 seconds during simulator testing.

But to create the perfect F1 car it's not enough to have the best single-seaters, because a grid full of X2010s probably wouldn't guarantee the lively and lively races that fans desire. On the contrary, creating a successful F1 requires overcoming multiple competing demands, in order to achieve goals and compromises to create something truly exciting.

So, at a time when F1 is debating whether the current regulations have delivered everything they hoped for, as we wait to see what will change for 2026, this is the perfect opportunity to sit down with Newey and understand his thoughts on what F1 should be.

Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, Newey offered a fascinating and pragmatic view of the direction he believes F1 should take, given that there are many aspects that continue to evolve in the world around us, which makes so that the head must dominate the heart.

“This is where all the puzzles come in. I think most people would say that, from a performance standpoint, it would probably be nice to have a V10 that can rev high, normally aspirated. We all want V10s and even the V8s of the 2000s,” Newey said.

“But obviously they are not fuel efficient. So, you have to find a balance between entertainment and social responsibility, even if the fuel consumption of cars in terms of pollution caused by this sport is, in reality, minimal.”

“The biggest contribution in terms of pollution is made by the people who watch the matches. In this sense, it is no different from football or any other international sport. But it is a question of image and dissemination. So, I think this is the first dilemma: the energy source. Choose efficiency, which is usually relatively quiet, given that noise is actually inefficiency?

“And then, from a chassis point of view, for me it is important that it is small and light. Cars have become very big. These are the fundamental elements. You can start discussing how fast the car needs to be, in terms of lap time and high-speed performance, but the thing to remember is that television makes cars seem slower.”

“Looking at a moderately performing car is not very exciting. Cars have to be fast in order to look fast on television.”

Newey's talk about the conundrums of a future F1 series gets to the heart of a conflict at the very heart of motor racing. Those who write the regulations and the promoters of the Grand Prix want rules that guarantee excitement, while the teams' job is to produce cars that, in a perfect world, give their best and achieve boring one-two finishes. Producing an entertaining victory doesn't bring any more points.”

These two aspects ultimately working against each other represent a conflict that Newey believes can never be fully resolved.

“Unless you make it artificial, which then starts to become like WWE, I'm not sure that's possible,” Newey said.

“The reality is that the current regulations are probably the most restrictive we have ever had. Each new regulatory era tends to be more restrictive than the previous ones, and the cost cap was also introduced to limit the expenses of the larger teams compared to the smaller ones. Yet, the order in terms of competitiveness with the budget cap has not changed significantly.”

However, the fact that the teams and the FIA ​​pursue different objectives does not mean that failure is guaranteed, because there are common ingredients that can produce exciting races.

Six different winners in as many races in 2012 will always be a difficult feat to achieve.

Photo by: Andrew Hone / Motorsport Images

Remember the good times

There is also the important consideration that F1 will always struggle to live up to what we remember from the past, i.e. memorable and iconic moments, while boring races have been erased from memory.

“We have a habit of remembering the memorable races, the memorable battles. Then we forget the ones that are a little boring,” Newey added.

“The reality is that there have been many boring races over the years, in every championship. And perhaps the most exciting season was 2012, when there were six different winners in the first six races.”

“The beauty of F1 is that it is a combination of man and machine. Inside the single-seater there are the chassis and the engine. So, there are actually three key factors to create an absolutely competitive package. all three are necessarily the best on the grid, but probably if two are the best and the third is good, then you will be in a reasonable position.”

“This is the danger of over-regulation: if cars became so regulated, to the point of almost being single-make, history shows that every time a series becomes single-make, it invariably becomes less popular at that point.”

“The best or worst example, depending on how you want to look at it, is IndyCar in the mid-1990s. There were, I think, four or five different chassis manufacturers, three or four different engine manufacturers, and Its popularity was starting to rival F1 at that time.”

“Soon after [in seguito alla scissione e alla successiva riunificazione delle serie a ruote scoperte negli Stati Uniti] it has become a single-brand series, certainly as regards the chassis, and a two-brand series as regards the engines. And his popularity, indeed, has declined.”

Newey believes the current tire balance is effective.

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The role of tires

The success of F1 does not just depend on the cars, because Newey sees an equally important aspect: the impact of the tyres.

As much as teams and drivers complain that F1 is in a particular era when it comes to tire degradation, as they can't push hard on every lap, Newey believes the balance right now is in actually quite good.

“I think tire degradation tends to get a bad name. But personally I think it's a positive thing. It gives room for different strategies, like we did in the Texas race [Austin] last year”.

“If tire degradation hadn't been significant in that race in Texas, we wouldn't have had any chance of helping Max [Verstappen] to win that race. And that was probably one of the most exciting races of the year.”

“So, I think the tire degradation is right as it is now. It means that, without repeating ourselves, we can have different strategies and that the cars perform differently at different times of the race. This gives a bit of variety and unpredictability which, otherwise, might be missing. Generally, the races in which tire degradation is less problematic and all the drivers end up making just one stop tend to be the ones that are a little more boring.”

Modern F1 cars are much larger than the last Newey-designed, title-winning McLaren, the 1999 MP4/14.

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

The size of the car is crucial

Despite the efforts made with the 2022 rules, Newey returns to his original point of view: the dimensions of the cars are fundamental.

“As regards the aerodynamic aspect, especially from 2022 the cars will be able to follow each other closely. But the single-seaters have perhaps become very large. They are fast and heavy, and I think this is a bit of a shame. Because something that can say over the years is that everything that F1 cars represent, tends to be popularized in showrooms.”

“The paddle shifter was born in F1. And now it has become very popular in road cars too. When turbo engines were first introduced in F1 in the 1980s, you tended to see more road cars with turbo engines”.

“Look at the carbon fiber wings: Most of the sports cars you see on the highway today have some kind of wing that goes up and down. So, this makes things spill over into the road world.”

“Certainly at the moment there is a lot of talk, rightly so, about ecology and how to reduce the effects of the car on the planet. What we tend to do is above all an obsession with reducing emissions, perhaps through batteries or hydrogen , without using fossil fuels”.

“But the most important thing for me is the amount of energy the car uses. Because that's the key thing: If the car uses huge amounts of energy, no matter where it comes from, that energy has to come from somewhere. Even though it comes from a wind turbine, it is absolutely not zero carbon.”

“So the possibility for F1 to go the opposite route and move to much smaller, lighter and more aerodynamically efficient cars, I think that's the route I would go down. Maybe that way we could start to change the situation compared to these three-ton monsters destroying our roads by creating potholes.”