Why Adrian Newey was bad for Formula 1

Adrian Newey has had an amazing career in F1 and is an undisputed genius of aerodynamics, but it is a genius that has harmed F1 by showing the limitations of the series.

Firstly, when we look into Newey's trophy cabinet we see unprecedented success and dominance, Since his first constructors championship in 1992 with Williams, Newey's cars have won 45% of the championships they have entered, a success rate that not even Schumacher can touch. Newey's cars have brought drivers titles to Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen, and Sebastian Vettel, a total of 10 drivers titles since 1992. If you could get yourself in an Adrian Newey car there was a 50:50 chance you would only have to beat your team mate to win the drivers title.

So why is F1 Prattle condemning all this aero-alchemy? Well firstly I wouldn't be the only person to question the quality of the drivers who have won in a Newey car. I believe that Formula 1 needs to find a way of ensuring that the stars of F1 are the drivers and that when a driver wins a world title we are in no doubt that he was the best driver that year, not that he was in the most aerodynamically efficient car.

I would propose that we give the teams an identical chassis and aero package and this would have three main benefits, number one, we would bring more manufactures into F1 as their engine would become the star of the engineering package and engine technology is more transferable to their road cars. Number two there would be massive cost savings on wind tunnels and aero development (not to mention that bright green flo-viz paint), which would help the smaller teams not only with finances, but also with competitiveness. Thirdly, we would give more drivers the capability to win the world championship if we look at this year, and assume the Mercedes was the best engine, we could potentially have had the drivers from Williams, Force India, Mclaren and the works Mercedes team competing for the title.

I have great respect for what these aerodynamicist wizards, but their importance should be nullified for the sake of the sport. Newey, Bell, Costa and Byrne should not be the names that are responsible for F1 success.

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