How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer

by Adrian Newey

At Red Bull I’ve introduced what I call the 24-hour rule, which is that we sit on an idea for a day or so, throw it around and talk about it, but don’t do anything concrete until it has been critiqued. Does it still stand up after 24 hours? If the answer’s no then we chuck it in the bin.

Evolution is often the key once the spark of a good direction has been set.

If a driver feels at risk, you’ve got to listen. It was our job as engineers to make sure the car was safe. It’s all about trust and trust is a two-way street.

To improve communications between the engineering departments, I persuaded Christian to expand the main engineering office out in a mezzanine so that all departments were in one big room instead of spread around the site. I also introduced a culture that meetings should only be deemed a success if a clear set of ideas and actions came from them; they should not be used simply to read out reports that should have already been read prior to the meeting.

At Valencia, Helmut, diplomatic as ever, approached Mark in practice and said, ‘Mark, you’re always shit at Valencia; will this year be any different?’ which is not really the best way to motivate a driver.