‘It’s almost always unexpected’ – Newey shares fascinating insight into where his F1 design ideas come from

Adrian Newey has opened up about the thought process behind his Formula 1 designs and the moments that tend to spark ideas, admitting they often “pop up” from nowhere when he is making coffee, taking a shower or going for a walk.

Newey is widely regarded as one of the greatest engineers in the history of the sport, having so far contributed to more than 200 Grand Prix victories, 14 drivers’ championships and 12 constructors’ titles across spells at Red Bull, McLaren and Williams.

After calling time on his Red Bull stint and enjoying a break from the frontline, he will soon join Aston Martin as their Managing Technical Partner, with team owner Lawrence Stroll describing him as “the greatest in the world at what he does”.

But how exactly has Newey consistently come up with innovative and winning concepts over the years? Speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, he revealed the way his mind works, where his “thought bubbles” come from and the importance of effectively using technological advancements such as Computational Fluid Dynamics.

What makes Adrian Newey so good?

“What I do find is that certainly on the aerodynamics [side] now, because CFD is such a great tool in terms of being able to visualise [things], you can start to understand the flow fields much more easily than the old days,” he explained.

“It will be looking at the CFD, trying to understand the vortex structures, the losses, the pressure fields, then working away on some details and some ideas. Quite often I find I get stuck, and I walk away, then a new idea might pop up – annoyingly sometimes in the middle of the night!

“I always used to get up [immediately] and scribble it down, then sometimes I’d get up in the morning and [think], ‘What a load of rubbish, that wasn’t worth getting up and spoiling my night’s sleep for’. Now I tend to wake up and take the attitude of, ‘If it was a good idea, I’ll still remember it in the morning’.

“I use that now as a sort of first order filter, if you like. Others are much more short-term, [such as] getting up, going for a walk, getting a coffee… I find sometimes stepping away and then coming back is easier. Or it can be in the shower, all the usual things. Those tend to be iterative ones.

“The kind of more first principal ideas, they tend to be, if you like, freer, but almost always unexpected – [in] the shower, taking the dogs for a walk. The subconscious never ceases to fascinate me… how you can be doing something completely different, then this sort of thought bubble pops up.”

Newey tends to take a notebook with him wherever he goes during Grand Prix weekends

But in addition to his own light-bulb moments, Newey is not opposed to looking at the competition for inspiration – the 66-year-old Briton and his notebook often keenly observing rival cars on pre-race grid walks.

“It’s normally to try to look at what other people are up to,” he continued. “Occasionally, I will then take this back to the guys at the factory and say, ‘Look, I noticed this, it could be worth copying – let’s try it on our car’.

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“Other times I’m using it more to sort of say, ‘OK, they’ve gone down this direction, what were they trying to achieve?’ It’s the sort of target of what somebody might be trying to achieve, rather than the specific detail of how they’ve achieved it, which interests me.”

Newey will bring all of these attributes to Aston Martin when he arrives at the outfit in early March, between pre-season testing in Bahrain and the opening round of the 2025 campaign – the Australian Grand Prix.