McLaren test issues EXPOSED ahead of F1 title bid

Formula 1 design legend Adrian Newey has revealed test issues for his former McLaren team.

The iconic F1 stalwart joined McLaren as their technical director in 1997 having previously proved his worth at Williams where his design prowess led to championship victories during their glory years.

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McLaren didn't quite make it as title challengers in 1997, but the outfit flew from the start of the 1998 season thanks to Newey's efforts, marking their last championship victory until the papaya team returned to the top of the standings in 2024.

In an ironic turn of events, McLaren toppled Newey's former Red Bull team off the top spot last season just in time for his exit from Christian Horner's outfit after completing the most successful tenure with an F1 team throughout his career.

Heading into the 2025 season, Newey has been placed on gardening leave as he prepares to join the fifth F1 team of his career, Aston Martin, who have been busy at pre-season testing to push their final car without Newey's input to the limit.

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Newey reflects on McLaren F1 challenges

During his time away from the sport ahead of his entry to Aston Martin next week, Newey reflected on his past with Auto Motor und Sport, highlighting the bumps along the way during his time with the team.

"I've been very lucky with the drivers I have worked with, Mika [Hakkinen] for instance. When I arrived at McLaren, Mika superficially appears to not be very good at explaining what a car is doing. I started to work with him at Monza '97 at a pre-race test.

"Listening to him, I realised that actually, firstly, he perhaps needed a little bit of coaching, but secondly, it was all there it just needed translating. It's like he's still speaking Finnish and not English, not literally. Once we started to understand each other, then Mika's feedback was very good.

"I was not his actual race engineer, but kind of in terms of talking to the driver and translating and understanding and discussing what setup changes we should make, I was effectively a race engineer through '98 and I really enjoyed that actually."

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