Newey praises Verstappen: “He knows how to adapt like the greats of F1”

By winning the 2023 world championship, Verstappen joined the prestigious list of 10 other drivers who have won more than two titles during their career. Only Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Juan Manuel Fangio, Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost have won more than the Dutchman, who however has achieved historical greats such as Niki Lauda, ​​Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham and Nelson Piquet.

If Red Bull manages to remain competitive and in the lead until the end of the current technical cycle, which will remain unchanged until the end of 2025 before the big revolution in 2026, Verstappen could theoretically boast five titles, further entering history. A goal that only three drivers have reached, namely Fangio, Schumacher and Hamilton, the last to be added to this prestigious list thanks to the world championship won in 2018.

Undoubtedly, with the increase year after year in the number of races on the calendar and the lengthening of periods of domination by a single team, the numbers are sometimes called into question, but the Dutchman has always been on the fast track. After just one year in single-seaters in the preparatory categories, Verstappen made the big leap towards Formula 1, where he made his debut with Toro Rosso. Thanks to the performances he put on track in his first season in the top category, the Dutchman was then promoted to the parent company Red Bull, where he had the opportunity to work with Adrian Newey.

During his career the British engineer managed to contribute to the conquest of 25 championships between drivers and manufacturers in over 40 years of career, which also allowed him to work alongside great champions of the past.

In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Newey initially acknowledged that such reflections are “very difficult, because these are different areas, different cars. But pI think that Max, like all truly great drivers, has the impression of being able to drive the car almost unconsciously. And that leaves it with a lot of processing power to think about what the machine is doing.”

“And this means that he can modify his driving to suit the car, change the set-up through the electronic instruments on the steering wheel [differenziale, bilanciamento della frenata e simili] to help him achieve the objectives he sets himself at that particular moment of the race and in the particular degradation experienced by the tires and so on”.

“This is essential to read a race to the end. And I believe that this is an aspect that he already had when he arrived in Formula 1, but perhaps now he has managed to develop it to a very high level.” It is no coincidence that in the past Newey himself had praised Verstappen's ability to manage the tires as one of his real strengths, also thanks to this ability to read the race. In the last season the Dutchman had one of the fastest cars in history at his disposal, but at the same time he was an excellent interpreter of it.

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, celebrates after the race

“So, this kind of ability to drive the car extremely quickly, but with a constant reserve [per analizzare ciò che sta succedendo]it's something that Max has very clearly and that all the true greats I've worked with had.” Undoubtedly the performance of the 2023 car allowed us to think with greater serenity, but these characteristics were also central in the conquest of the titles in 2021 and in 2022, as well as in some successes in 2019 and 2020, one of his best seasons in the top category.

Elements which, according to Newey, make Verstappen an easy driver to work with, also because he knows well how to express what he wants from a car during the race weekend. Compared to Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel, who made the methodical approach and long debriefs elements that characterized them compared to the others, or Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen, who didn't talk much but knew how to get to the point by providing precious indications for the engineers, the The Dutchman fits in the middle, as the British engineer himself had revealed in a previous interview.

“Yes, he is a driver who is very easy to work with. He is demanding, of course, absolutely. But his feedback is good, he is not too complicated. He knows how to express what he wants from the car. And then with GP [Gianpiero Lambiase, ingegnere capo della Red Bull]his track engineer, is confident that we will find solutions”. An aspect that is also evident in recent seasons, in which Red Bull has often managed to take a step forward between Friday and Saturday thanks to the night work between the various sessions of free practice. Although the RB19 made the wide operating window one of its strong points, the team from Milton Keynes did not always present itself with the perfect set-up, but the information collected on Friday allowed it to make the difference in the following days.

“We don't always succeed – Singapore [nel 2023 e unica sconfitta della Red Bull nella stagione appena conclusa] is the example! But we do our best.”