Horner reveals McLaren fight to allow Newey to 'live in the matrix'

Sam Hall
Monday 19 December 2022 07:40

Christian Horner has revealed a battle with McLaren to "wrestle" a crucial piece of kit from the team after signing chief technical officer Adrian Newey in 2006.

Newey is widely viewed as the best designer in F1 history, with his cars taking 12 drivers to championship success while also topping the constructors' table on 11 occasions.

The 63-year-old is famous for continuing to design his aerodynamic philosophies on a drawing board by hand, rather than on a computer.

Speaking recently after Red Bull and Max Verstappen secured Newey his latest titles, team principal Horner joked: "Adrian is the only bloke that can see air. He lives in the matrix.

"He's been the conductor of the technical orchestra for all these years now but he's still very hands-on, he's still at his drawing board.

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"It's the only drawing board still in F1. I had to argue with Ron Dennis to wrestle it out of McLaren.

"Obviously, [there have been] highs and lows during all these years but it's always been fun, it's always been about the racing.

"We've always had great support from the group and from [Red Bull's late founder] Dietrich [Mateschitz] and from [Red Bull advisor] Helmut [Marko].

"That's enabled us to go about our jobs and just focus on being the best team that we can be."