‘He inspired me’ – Former driver gives insight into Newey’s ‘surprising’ hands-on approach

Formula 1

“He got very deep into the questions and into the debriefs with the drivers. This is something that was surprising because normally technical directors don’t get involved in the qualifying or testing debrief with the drivers.

“I was the third driver back in 2005 so we had the chance of running three cars on a Friday. I remember in Australia, first race of the season, we were there with the MP4-20.

READ MORE: ‘It became very clear and obvious’ – Newey on his Aston Martin move and teaming up with ‘arch-enemy’ Alonso

“I did the FP1 session, so he was asking me all types of questions about going into Turn 1, steering angle, how much lock I was applying into Turn 1, and what was limiting me from going faster in that corner. He was very much into the details of the car handling and balance, but he was always asking: ‘what was limiting you to go faster?’

“Then he would go into the wind tunnel. He would look for solutions and the next race he would say: ‘remember what you told me in Turn 1 in Australia? We’ve brought this new front wing so that you can go faster.’

“It was just that level of taking the comments of the driver, not only relying on data and applying what he could see on the data. He was relying on data, listening to the driver and immediately looking for solutions and bringing solutions because, at the end of the day, we all understand the problems.

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