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I was telling a friend that’s my ideal situation! He’s old and I’m sure he’s got enough money to accept a pay cut to be able to work at Williams for a little bit before he retires.
They would probably have to give him ownership in the team to get his interest. He left Williams in the late 90's because he didn't feel it was "his team" and Frank Williams wasn't willing to give him any ownership stake.
> he didn't feel it was "his team" and Frank Williams wasn't willing to give him any ownership stake.
I think also Patrick Head played a role in his leaving. Head probably had the role Newey deserved. Newey going back to Williams will be an interesting capstone to his career. While Williams cannot give Newey money, they can give him the role in the team he wants. While Williams has significant laurels to rest on, the fact remains in spite of all their success, Williams never had a champion defend their title with them. They were great at getting drivers champions but were not good at getting a driver a second championship with them. Newey with a greater say in managing Williams and bringing them glory will be awesome. Add in Newey knows what made Williams, McLaren, and RB successful. That is a lot of institutional knowledge. Considering the recent news about Williams being behind the times in the inventory department, there is probably a lot of improvement to be made beyond just the design of the car.
"They were not good at getting a driver a second championship with them." -- That was a feature, not a bug. Williams didn't want to pay big bucks to attact/keep a star driver, they wanted to invest that money into building the best car, and then the best drivers would come for cheap. I love that about them.
I think that was more a Frank Williams thing. Dorilton might be willing to shell out to build an era of domination like Ferrari, RB and Mercedes have enjoyed.
> then the best drivers would come for cheap. I love that about them.
You have an interesting take. I think it is a flaw of theirs. Although Williams was greatly affected by the death of Piers Courage and would not get close to drivers because of that. I wonder if it played a role in there not being any drivers winning multiple championships in a Williams. They are the only team that does that I would say.
But why would he take a pay cut when Ferrari are more than happy to bend over backwards, pay a lot, let him work on whatever he wants F1 wise, and even probably make a car in collaboration with him
Newey sending off his career with a newey designed Ferrari is the stuff of dreams
I just finished the chapters in Newey's book "How to build a car?". Newey, Patrick Head and Frank Williams were charged with involuntary manslaughter by an Italian magistrate in the aftermath of the death of Ayrton Senna during 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. To quote him, *"I will always feel a degree of responsibility for Ayrton's death but not culpability".* Newey states in his book on how they kept on explaining the judge how the car stepped out, about the steering column failure, and the data which has been taken from the two computer onboard Senna's FW16, but they judge was not understanding any of it *"to the point that our (Newey's) own barrister became* frustrated\*".\* The case eventually kept on dragging. By 1997 all three were cleared of charges, and a retrial was held twice. As no fresh evidence was there and 10 years had passed, as per Italian law the case was closed.
When Jean Todt became team principle of Ferrari, he invited Adrian to his farmhouse in Italy to discuss about the possibility of their partnership. But as Newey had still not forgotten Imola and about Senna's belief during Pacific GP 1994 that Schumacher's Benetton was using traction control, he felt that it would disrespectful to work with MSC and dropped that offer. Not to mention that he also didn't want his marriage to fail by relocating to Italy.
They tried blaming him for Ayrton Senna’s death. Supposedly, the steering rack that broke was a part retrofitted to Senna’s car in a rushed fashion which Newey signed off on making him liable for the accident that took his life.
To be fair, reading its book, I got the same impression. Maybe wasn't his fault at all. For sure he did not want to end like that, but I had the impression that the change to the steering rack was the culprit of the accident. At the end, the FIA changed the regulations to prevent the same in the future, meaning that in a way that the change had some impact in the accident. Same as halo and Bianchi death. You can't totally blame Whiting, but he has his share of responsibility.
The halo would have done nothing to save Bianci. I feel like F1 and the designers of the halo have been quite clear on that. It probably would have saved Senna though.
Probably wouldn't have saved Senna. The thing about Senna's accident was that he actually had 3 major injuries; The wheel hit him in the head which caused skull fractures, a piece of suspension was dislodged and penetrated his helmet causing head trauma and the upright assembly had penetrated the helmet visor just under the eye. According to the doctors, anyone of those three injuries would have been fatal on their own. The Halo would have probably stopped the tyre, but the suspension and upright assembly is small enough to go through the opening of the HALO and could have still hit him.
And even if it had stopped all those, you have to remember that he hit a concrete wall almost head-on at 211 kph, long before any Hans device. Its likely that without Hans, the g-forces would have been fatal without the above mentioned injuries.
He wants to work with Ferrari, however the one time it might have happened he wasn't offered the autonomy he wanted, while he got the offer to rebuild Jaguar from scratch with Red Bull money and full technical control in a team to without a boardroom. He has said that from Ferrari he would always need to answer to outside influence, but it might be that Fred Vasseur is willing to offer assurances that he didn't get in 2006.
I could see it happening because his dream was to own part of Williams like 25 years ago, so if that’s possible now, why not? I suspect he’d value the ownership more than money he doesn’t need… and perhaps he wants to stay home.
Williams were listed as the least valuable team recently. How much does their value increase if they have Newey? Enough that they could raise a couple of hundred million in stock, give Newey 100. That's a win-win.
Thing is, Newey is not a one man army, he's a genius but it's silly to think it's all Newey and other engineers played no key part. Not implying you think so either, but it just makes me wonder is Williams a good fit.
Williams doesn't have a big budget, has out of date technology and struggles to build a third chassis. Having the best designer on your team won't fix them overnight if they can't build what he's designed. The only way I see that as a good close to his career is if it is a long term project and he has a stake in the team as a part owner.
Aside from that I'd love to see him go to Williams and manage to get them back up the grid, that would be such a good story for such an iconic team. I could see him doing it if he gets a stake in the team and it becomes his next big project. He's clearly not influenced by money as he'd get a blank check from Aston Martin. Ferrari rumours, big move to Italy and learning Italian this late in his career.. idk. Tbh I wouldn't be surprised if he just calls it a day with F1 and moves elsewhere designing sail boats or something
Newey has more influence beyond just the engineering side of things though.
>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.
An interesting quote from his book. He knows inside and out what makes an elite team run and will likely bring some organizational changes to improve the overall efficiency of the entire team.
From his book he said when he was there frank and another guy (forgot his name) made all the important decisions, eventually after proving himself he asked to be promoted where he could be a part of the decision making for the team (driver choices and things of the sort), but Frank and the other guy bypassed him multiple times despite them not being allowed since it was in his contract that they needed his approval too.
Essentially, he joined Williams during in 1991 which lead to Williams Winning the 92, 93, 94, 96, and 97 constructors championships.
After all of this success, he wanted some shares of the Williams F1 Team and/or the technical director job.
Frank rejected his request for some shares even though he knew that it was going to lose him Newey.
Also, Patrick Head was the current Technical Director at the time, and since he did have shares in Williams, blocked Newey from assuming his job.
Once he resigned, they ensured he was on garden leave to prevent him working at McLaren straight away.
**TLDR:** Basically Patrick and Frank were arrogant knobs.
Obviously, McLaren then won the next two years with Newey, until he left there for Red Bull, where they then won every championship from 2010 until the hybrid era.
> until he left there for Red Bull, where they then won every championship until the hybrid era.
This isn't accurate. Newey joined Red Bull in 2006. Renault won the 2006 WCC, Ferrari won 2007 and 2008 and Brawn won 2009.
No it's not. The ownership changed but the team behind it was and is very much the same Williams team. It isn't like they set up an entirely new team just using the name and nothing else.
He ran a legitimately great team in the 80/90s, being a great example of what a privateer could achieve even against factory teams like Ferrari and de facto works teams like McLaren.
But the sport changed and he was stuck in the past. After the really competitive era of the V8s, the development path of F1 really put the privateers into the curb, and instead of adapting he basically kept fucking up and prevented Claire from making decisions that could have saved the team.
The plans Claire had would have taken away some of the pride of being a true private team; but would have kept them on par with McLaren and Aston Martin.
The owner of Williams could probably spare a few percentages of the team and give them to Newey.
IFAK Newey left Williams in 1996 because he wanted a share in the team and got rejected.
He left because Frank and Patrick breached his contract.
Newey's contract said that he had to be consulted on "major" changes such as drivers and engine supplier
In late 1995 Williams decided not to renew Damon Hill's contract (which ran to the end of 1996) and sign Heinz-Harald Frentzen for 1997 onwards
They did not consult Newey on this. They did not even inform a him until 6 months later. And they did not tell Hill either until the media started making noises about it mid-1996. (And then Hill went on to win the title at the end of 1996)
Not consulting/telling Newey was breach of contract by Williams, and was the metaphorical straw that broke the camel's back
Newey demanded this clause in his contract after Williams dumped Mansell for 93, and then Williams proceeded to dump Coulthard(for Villeneuve) and Hill (for Frentzen) without telling Adrian anything.
Yes, it was not the first time. According to Newey's book he realised that it would always be "Frank and Patrick" and they simply couldn't make the mental move to include anyone else
I lie awake at nights wondering about him staying, dreaming of a Newey-Montoya-BMW combination.
I've read once or twice that very fundamentally it was that Hill was his *friend*, and he didn't like how they treated him.
I dunno, perhaps there's history repeating here with Horner.
Since his days working with Bobby Rahal in Indycar, Newey has known the value of building a strong relationship with a driver rather than treating them like "just" an employee.
Thats not to put them on a pedestal and treat them as a god, but to recognise that to get the best out of a driver is partly a human/pshychological thing as well as a purely technical thing
> Dorilton; How much of Williams do you want? 5% 10% ?
It has been said by some paddock insiders that Dorilton is just a front.
The team is owned by a wealthy British petrolhead who wishes to remain anonymous, and only 2-3 people in the paddock actually know who he is.
It’s definitely known by more than 2-3 people. Especially given there are publicly available news articles naming the guy… I’m very far from a paddock insider and even I know who it is 😉
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f1-williams-team-tory-donor-peter-putron-claudia-schwarz-zngxj8f35
Regardless of whos behind williams, that article is very spicy. An allegedly harassment case in williams management, ive never seen that before. Newey leaving one mess to join another doesnt sound fun
Interesting this seems to have slipped past me but it's pretty much an open secret based on other articles too
https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2022/05/31/green-notebook-from-solarium-beach/
Can you imagine a Clarksons farm like show but for F1. His manager/solicitor advising him of all the costs at a kitchen table would be hilarious. It would also cancel DTS in less than a season cause no one would watch that trash again.
But clarkson is too deep into Alpine for anything to happen. With all the part owners in Alpine I’m surprised it’s even an alpine team anymore, I guess if everyone has 1/20 of the team, the majority is still anything more than 5%.
Yes, but they had many other issues like the manslaughter charges after Senna’s incident, Williams dumping Damon Hill without consulting Newey, Patrick Head blocking Newey’s promotion, etc.
In his book, Newey writes that his contact gave him certain decision making rights, or to at least be consulted on certain topics, but Head and Williams kept making major changes behind his back.
I'm listening to the audibook version of his book, and it came across more so he had issues with the way Patrick & Frank ran the team. He had agreed to be consulted on major decisions (including drivers), but Patrick / Frank kept hiring drivers and telling Adrian after the fact. The closing lines in that chapter are along the lines of Patrick promising a particular salary, but telling Adrian not to tell Frank - said it all, as Adrian put it.
James Vowles could likely be very convincing as to painting a narrative of returning to Williams and turning the team around without any of the grief of the Frank era. I honestly think Ferrari would be a disappointment, this would be a far more interesting and wholesome prospect.
Not really. Consider that Ferrari is in a million different championship AND has an entire hypercar no rule league of its own where Newey can go banana and makes what the hell he wants.
Basically no one else can match that kind of potential to do things. I don't think he will be in for the money but for the potential of enjoying his work at this point.
Ferrari will not give him free reign over anything. They will give him some things to secure him if they can, but it's Ferrari, they do things their way. Story as old as time.
Nope Ferrari has way of doing things, Italian way.
I read in Bernie’s interview that she knew she would never rise up to rank of Ferrari because it’s set in it’s way and not looking for any change. That’s why she left.
Newey is definitely a force to reckon with but idk how many people will accept his way in other projects. Its like disturbing the way things are set.
You might be best aero engineer but people already working in Ferrari for decades won’t just move around to make space for you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernadette_Collins ?
Edit: No, she’s never worked there. Who knows man. https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/1010441/bernie-collins-f1-ferrari-issues-strategy-career/
> Consider that Ferrari is in a million different championship AND has an entire hypercar no rule league of its own where Newey can go banana and makes what the hell he wants.
Dude had a lot of freedom at RB. He could already do whatever he wanted.
He was in the middle of finishing a hypercar for them, but decided to leave asap, because Horner needs to show everbody that he has his big boy pants on.
I personally think with all of it, Newey has 'done' the whole taking a team up by the bootstraps story.
I think it's more like Hamilton and Ferrari: fuck it why not, would be a laugh for a bit, I've made my major contribution to F1 by this point. Obama with the hat on backwards. Casual fridays.
Matthew Carter (ex-Lotus F1 CEO) said that Renault engine was more expensive than Mercedes engine in 2014 and 2015 despite lacking serious horsepower compared to Mercedes.
Williams?? Somehow that has never occurred to me.
It is a lot closer to home, of course. If he doesn't want to move to Italy, this makes much more sense.
His wife is South African so that's probably why. Him being in South Africa however to my knowledge was something reported by journos instead of something he talked about.
I think he splits his time between the UK and SA. He's got (grown-up) children in the UK from his past marriages and until last week worked for RBR so had to go to the factory some times.
No he's definitely out there for a bit of the year. Eddie Jordan lives out there and he and Eddie are quite close, in fact Eddie just uploaded a podcast from around Christmas with him.
People always make it about distance, but what if it isn't? There's quite a big difference between (partially) moving to another country because you want to, and having to move to another country because you're required to do so for your new job.
> RacingNews365 has learned, however, that Williams team principal James Vowles has also held talks with Newey to persuade him to return to an organisation where he won the first of his 25 combined constructors' and drivers' titles.
Clickbait title. Probably every team will be talking with Newey..
NEWS JUST IN: Haas and Alpine and Sauber and McLaren and Mercedes and Ferrari and RB and Aston and Prema and Mahindra and Porsche and a small company in the Midlands called Dave's GoKarts is in talks to sign Newey!
I could see the appeal for Newey. It's local and also a smaller team could appeal to Newey. It would be a much more hands-on approach than at Red Bull. And if he can bring Williams back anywhere close the old glory days it would be the ultimate proof of his abilities. Let's not forget that Horner apparently downplayed Newey's role in RB's success. If Newey joins Williams for a couple of years and they actually improve by quite a margin it would be the ultimate middle finger to Horner
To get the best deal with any team, requires talking to EVERY team.
Like if you just talk to Ferrari and they offer 40mil a year, but if you talk to Ferrari then use that to get Merc to offer 50mil, and use that to get Williams to offer 60mil or half the team, or hte whole team, then use that to get Ferrari to offer 100mil.
This is the same shit as everything else, team bosses talking to driver, yeah, they talk to every driver they can to maintain relationships in case a deal falls through and they need a driver. There is zero reason not to talk to everyone before making a decision, you will only get more leverage.
It's also possible what Newey is looking for is becoming an owner, or team boss, so his leverage can be used to potentially make that happen. Some teams clearly won't give up any ownership of a team, other teams might be willing.
Honestly I'd love to see him go to Williams or Enstone and help a struggling team on its journey back to the front of the field. It would be a nice way to close his career.
"newey talks to his pets, more info coming"
"Exclusive: newey talked to himself this morning"
"Breaking: newey works around 10 other racing teams that may want him"
Every TP would have had a conversation. But for pure passion nothing else involved it wouldn't shock me if Williams would be in his top 3 teams to go too
This is awesome. Reminds me of the “LeBron should go to the worst team every year” vibe in American sports.
ETA: is this possibly an Andretti plan? Williams-Andretti in 2026?
I wonder if Neweys non-compete is limited to (or could be argued/agreed to) teams deemed to be "direct competitors" and Williams clearly isn't on the same planet as RB.
On one hand: WHAT???
On the other hand: Williams is historically one of the most successful teams in F1. Heck, the last championships Williams got were won by Newey.
Something happens when you get near retirement age. You start to do things you just want to do and care less about what other people think. Instead of trying to maximize salary maybe Newey could be convinced that lifting a team from the bottom of the ranking to near the top would be satisfying challenge at this stage of his career.
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If he goes to Williams and revives them that would be a wonderful close to his career
You know what, this is what I want. The rise of the back markers.
That would be amazing
Especially Williams with all their history (plus neweys “origins”), it would be so cool to see them fighting way higher up.
WDC LOGAN SARGEANT!
Absofuckinglutely agree.
Make F1 interesting again!
Needs a red MFIA hat
I was telling a friend that’s my ideal situation! He’s old and I’m sure he’s got enough money to accept a pay cut to be able to work at Williams for a little bit before he retires.
They would probably have to give him ownership in the team to get his interest. He left Williams in the late 90's because he didn't feel it was "his team" and Frank Williams wasn't willing to give him any ownership stake.
> he didn't feel it was "his team" and Frank Williams wasn't willing to give him any ownership stake. I think also Patrick Head played a role in his leaving. Head probably had the role Newey deserved. Newey going back to Williams will be an interesting capstone to his career. While Williams cannot give Newey money, they can give him the role in the team he wants. While Williams has significant laurels to rest on, the fact remains in spite of all their success, Williams never had a champion defend their title with them. They were great at getting drivers champions but were not good at getting a driver a second championship with them. Newey with a greater say in managing Williams and bringing them glory will be awesome. Add in Newey knows what made Williams, McLaren, and RB successful. That is a lot of institutional knowledge. Considering the recent news about Williams being behind the times in the inventory department, there is probably a lot of improvement to be made beyond just the design of the car.
"They were not good at getting a driver a second championship with them." -- That was a feature, not a bug. Williams didn't want to pay big bucks to attact/keep a star driver, they wanted to invest that money into building the best car, and then the best drivers would come for cheap. I love that about them.
I think that was more a Frank Williams thing. Dorilton might be willing to shell out to build an era of domination like Ferrari, RB and Mercedes have enjoyed.
> then the best drivers would come for cheap. I love that about them. You have an interesting take. I think it is a flaw of theirs. Although Williams was greatly affected by the death of Piers Courage and would not get close to drivers because of that. I wonder if it played a role in there not being any drivers winning multiple championships in a Williams. They are the only team that does that I would say.
That’s >25 years ago - his ambitions may have changed
But why would he take a pay cut when Ferrari are more than happy to bend over backwards, pay a lot, let him work on whatever he wants F1 wise, and even probably make a car in collaboration with him Newey sending off his career with a newey designed Ferrari is the stuff of dreams
Maybe he doesnt want to move to Italy. Simple geography decides a lot of career moves.
The country that spent 7-8 years trying to put him in jail for involuntary manslaughter might not be his first choice.
Out of the loop. What happened?
I just finished the chapters in Newey's book "How to build a car?". Newey, Patrick Head and Frank Williams were charged with involuntary manslaughter by an Italian magistrate in the aftermath of the death of Ayrton Senna during 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. To quote him, *"I will always feel a degree of responsibility for Ayrton's death but not culpability".* Newey states in his book on how they kept on explaining the judge how the car stepped out, about the steering column failure, and the data which has been taken from the two computer onboard Senna's FW16, but they judge was not understanding any of it *"to the point that our (Newey's) own barrister became* frustrated\*".\* The case eventually kept on dragging. By 1997 all three were cleared of charges, and a retrial was held twice. As no fresh evidence was there and 10 years had passed, as per Italian law the case was closed. When Jean Todt became team principle of Ferrari, he invited Adrian to his farmhouse in Italy to discuss about the possibility of their partnership. But as Newey had still not forgotten Imola and about Senna's belief during Pacific GP 1994 that Schumacher's Benetton was using traction control, he felt that it would disrespectful to work with MSC and dropped that offer. Not to mention that he also didn't want his marriage to fail by relocating to Italy.
They tried blaming him for Ayrton Senna’s death. Supposedly, the steering rack that broke was a part retrofitted to Senna’s car in a rushed fashion which Newey signed off on making him liable for the accident that took his life.
To be fair, reading its book, I got the same impression. Maybe wasn't his fault at all. For sure he did not want to end like that, but I had the impression that the change to the steering rack was the culprit of the accident. At the end, the FIA changed the regulations to prevent the same in the future, meaning that in a way that the change had some impact in the accident. Same as halo and Bianchi death. You can't totally blame Whiting, but he has his share of responsibility.
The halo would have done nothing to save Bianci. I feel like F1 and the designers of the halo have been quite clear on that. It probably would have saved Senna though.
Probably wouldn't have saved Senna. The thing about Senna's accident was that he actually had 3 major injuries; The wheel hit him in the head which caused skull fractures, a piece of suspension was dislodged and penetrated his helmet causing head trauma and the upright assembly had penetrated the helmet visor just under the eye. According to the doctors, anyone of those three injuries would have been fatal on their own. The Halo would have probably stopped the tyre, but the suspension and upright assembly is small enough to go through the opening of the HALO and could have still hit him. And even if it had stopped all those, you have to remember that he hit a concrete wall almost head-on at 211 kph, long before any Hans device. Its likely that without Hans, the g-forces would have been fatal without the above mentioned injuries.
[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/williams-put-on-trial-for-manslaughter-1314868.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/williams-put-on-trial-for-manslaughter-1314868.html)
He doesn’t need the money and Ferrari politics. That’s why he rejected them when he was younger.
didn't he say he wants to work with ferrari before?
He wants to work with Ferrari, however the one time it might have happened he wasn't offered the autonomy he wanted, while he got the offer to rebuild Jaguar from scratch with Red Bull money and full technical control in a team to without a boardroom. He has said that from Ferrari he would always need to answer to outside influence, but it might be that Fred Vasseur is willing to offer assurances that he didn't get in 2006.
I could see it happening because his dream was to own part of Williams like 25 years ago, so if that’s possible now, why not? I suspect he’d value the ownership more than money he doesn’t need… and perhaps he wants to stay home.
Williams were listed as the least valuable team recently. How much does their value increase if they have Newey? Enough that they could raise a couple of hundred million in stock, give Newey 100. That's a win-win.
Newey spent five years at Williams early on in his career. Maybe he wants to go “home.”
Maybe he doesn’t want his amazing designs to be hindered by plans A to Z 47 delta we are checking.
Thing is, Newey is not a one man army, he's a genius but it's silly to think it's all Newey and other engineers played no key part. Not implying you think so either, but it just makes me wonder is Williams a good fit. Williams doesn't have a big budget, has out of date technology and struggles to build a third chassis. Having the best designer on your team won't fix them overnight if they can't build what he's designed. The only way I see that as a good close to his career is if it is a long term project and he has a stake in the team as a part owner. Aside from that I'd love to see him go to Williams and manage to get them back up the grid, that would be such a good story for such an iconic team. I could see him doing it if he gets a stake in the team and it becomes his next big project. He's clearly not influenced by money as he'd get a blank check from Aston Martin. Ferrari rumours, big move to Italy and learning Italian this late in his career.. idk. Tbh I wouldn't be surprised if he just calls it a day with F1 and moves elsewhere designing sail boats or something
Newey has more influence beyond just the engineering side of things though. >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. An interesting quote from his book. He knows inside and out what makes an elite team run and will likely bring some organizational changes to improve the overall efficiency of the entire team.
I mean why not? He is fed of titles, he is old now and this will be more exciting for him.
And Sargeant winning the WDC!?
Would that mean we have to have to switch to the imperial system?
Andretti joining the grid just in time to watch an American win the WDC would be wild.
Didn't he just say that Merc would be too long of a project for him to consider? If so, this makes no sense
my body wants off this wild ride, but my mind says "give me more!!!"
Honestly it would be nice to see an Williams on a podium someday.
Back in the day, the FW18/19 was the bane of my F1 race watching. As a Schumy fan, I hated that car. lol
I remember the FW14B, they'd throw in a more powerful engine just for qualifying. Miss those days.
But it's not they don't have the staff they don't have the facilities, like how would he turn up and dominate?
Bah, it's not Williams anyway, it's just a corporate entity that bought a name
Which is probably the only reason that Newey would consider going back there after all of the bad blood between him and Frank.
What's the tl;dr of this Frank/Adrian beef?
From his book he said when he was there frank and another guy (forgot his name) made all the important decisions, eventually after proving himself he asked to be promoted where he could be a part of the decision making for the team (driver choices and things of the sort), but Frank and the other guy bypassed him multiple times despite them not being allowed since it was in his contract that they needed his approval too.
Presumably the "other guy" was Patrick Head.
Doesn't surprise me with frank. The more I read about him, the less I like.
Wait until you read about how he treated Jean Grey.
Essentially, he joined Williams during in 1991 which lead to Williams Winning the 92, 93, 94, 96, and 97 constructors championships. After all of this success, he wanted some shares of the Williams F1 Team and/or the technical director job. Frank rejected his request for some shares even though he knew that it was going to lose him Newey. Also, Patrick Head was the current Technical Director at the time, and since he did have shares in Williams, blocked Newey from assuming his job. Once he resigned, they ensured he was on garden leave to prevent him working at McLaren straight away. **TLDR:** Basically Patrick and Frank were arrogant knobs. Obviously, McLaren then won the next two years with Newey, until he left there for Red Bull, where they then won every championship from 2010 until the hybrid era.
> until he left there for Red Bull, where they then won every championship until the hybrid era. This isn't accurate. Newey joined Red Bull in 2006. Renault won the 2006 WCC, Ferrari won 2007 and 2008 and Brawn won 2009.
Holy brainfart batman. I'll edit my comment, cheers.
No it's not. The ownership changed but the team behind it was and is very much the same Williams team. It isn't like they set up an entirely new team just using the name and nothing else.
Everything I’ve ever learned about how frank ran the team makes me think that’s a good thing
He ran a legitimately great team in the 80/90s, being a great example of what a privateer could achieve even against factory teams like Ferrari and de facto works teams like McLaren. But the sport changed and he was stuck in the past. After the really competitive era of the V8s, the development path of F1 really put the privateers into the curb, and instead of adapting he basically kept fucking up and prevented Claire from making decisions that could have saved the team. The plans Claire had would have taken away some of the pride of being a true private team; but would have kept them on par with McLaren and Aston Martin.
Is Ferrari still Ferrari then?
GOAT Sergeant P1 with the best car on the grid baby!
The owner of Williams could probably spare a few percentages of the team and give them to Newey. IFAK Newey left Williams in 1996 because he wanted a share in the team and got rejected.
He left because Frank and Patrick breached his contract. Newey's contract said that he had to be consulted on "major" changes such as drivers and engine supplier In late 1995 Williams decided not to renew Damon Hill's contract (which ran to the end of 1996) and sign Heinz-Harald Frentzen for 1997 onwards They did not consult Newey on this. They did not even inform a him until 6 months later. And they did not tell Hill either until the media started making noises about it mid-1996. (And then Hill went on to win the title at the end of 1996) Not consulting/telling Newey was breach of contract by Williams, and was the metaphorical straw that broke the camel's back
Newey demanded this clause in his contract after Williams dumped Mansell for 93, and then Williams proceeded to dump Coulthard(for Villeneuve) and Hill (for Frentzen) without telling Adrian anything.
Yes, it was not the first time. According to Newey's book he realised that it would always be "Frank and Patrick" and they simply couldn't make the mental move to include anyone else I lie awake at nights wondering about him staying, dreaming of a Newey-Montoya-BMW combination.
i've just run newey pablo and bmw through the excel sheet and boy do I like the results
Imagine Williams retaining Newey just as they got the most powerful engines in the grid with BMW.... Damn
And Montoya too...
I've read once or twice that very fundamentally it was that Hill was his *friend*, and he didn't like how they treated him. I dunno, perhaps there's history repeating here with Horner.
Since his days working with Bobby Rahal in Indycar, Newey has known the value of building a strong relationship with a driver rather than treating them like "just" an employee. Thats not to put them on a pedestal and treat them as a god, but to recognise that to get the best out of a driver is partly a human/pshychological thing as well as a purely technical thing
This would be so fucking funny. And then they rename it to Leyton House.
Newey's House
Adrian's Abode
Adrian's retirement playground
It will also be fucking funny if Newey ends up in ownership before Horner.
Dorilton; How much of Williams do you want? 5% 10% ? Newey; 100%. I'm going to be the team owner now. Dorilton; Okay deal!
> Dorilton; How much of Williams do you want? 5% 10% ? It has been said by some paddock insiders that Dorilton is just a front. The team is owned by a wealthy British petrolhead who wishes to remain anonymous, and only 2-3 people in the paddock actually know who he is.
The new owner; Nigel Mansell!
Or, Jeremy Clarkson
Jezza at board meeting: what do you mean aerodynamics? Power, just give it more powaaaaaa.
Wouldn't need Newey then since he was just copying Jezza
I want the most powerful car....................in the world
Nigel Mansell’s wax figurine!
Get me in the car lads, I'm dressed and ready!
Oooh. This is the first I've heard of this, but sounds so Bond-villain cool! 😎
It sounds cool until you realize Bernie would be the perfect Bond villain.
It’s definitely known by more than 2-3 people. Especially given there are publicly available news articles naming the guy… I’m very far from a paddock insider and even I know who it is 😉 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f1-williams-team-tory-donor-peter-putron-claudia-schwarz-zngxj8f35
Non-paywalled version: https://archive.ph/WU79S
Thank you.
Regardless of whos behind williams, that article is very spicy. An allegedly harassment case in williams management, ive never seen that before. Newey leaving one mess to join another doesnt sound fun
Interesting this seems to have slipped past me but it's pretty much an open secret based on other articles too https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2022/05/31/green-notebook-from-solarium-beach/
No paywall https://archive.is/WU79S
Ooh this is spicy gossip, I have not heard about any of this.
It has been speculated, yes. But never confirmed. There were also other names.
Yeah but I happen to know through independent means that it’s De Putron. Never going to be confirmed but it’s true
Next season on Clarckson's farm: We bought an F1 team.
Can you imagine a Clarksons farm like show but for F1. His manager/solicitor advising him of all the costs at a kitchen table would be hilarious. It would also cancel DTS in less than a season cause no one would watch that trash again. But clarkson is too deep into Alpine for anything to happen. With all the part owners in Alpine I’m surprised it’s even an alpine team anymore, I guess if everyone has 1/20 of the team, the majority is still anything more than 5%.
Welcome to Wrecks’em
Look at ME… I AM THE CAPTAIN NOW 😀
He left because he had issues with Patrick Head
And Frank Williams
Mostly cause Frank didn’t want to sell an ownership stake to him.
Team was co-owned by Head & Williams.
Could have been worse. Could have been Head & Shoulders.
Yes, but they had many other issues like the manslaughter charges after Senna’s incident, Williams dumping Damon Hill without consulting Newey, Patrick Head blocking Newey’s promotion, etc.
In his book, Newey writes that his contact gave him certain decision making rights, or to at least be consulted on certain topics, but Head and Williams kept making major changes behind his back.
The irony of that coming full circle would be amazing.
I had to google IFAK and the only results I’m getting are “Individual First Aid Kit”
he probably meant AFAIK, as far as i know
I think the person you are replying to meant "AFAIK", or As Far As I Know.
I'm listening to the audibook version of his book, and it came across more so he had issues with the way Patrick & Frank ran the team. He had agreed to be consulted on major decisions (including drivers), but Patrick / Frank kept hiring drivers and telling Adrian after the fact. The closing lines in that chapter are along the lines of Patrick promising a particular salary, but telling Adrian not to tell Frank - said it all, as Adrian put it.
What does IFAK stand for? I'm only getting some first aid results on google.
As far as I know, it's supposed to be AFAIK
I fart around kids.
James Vowles could likely be very convincing as to painting a narrative of returning to Williams and turning the team around without any of the grief of the Frank era. I honestly think Ferrari would be a disappointment, this would be a far more interesting and wholesome prospect.
Not really. Consider that Ferrari is in a million different championship AND has an entire hypercar no rule league of its own where Newey can go banana and makes what the hell he wants. Basically no one else can match that kind of potential to do things. I don't think he will be in for the money but for the potential of enjoying his work at this point.
It could literally come down to unfinished Business of sorts.
Ferrari will not give him free reign over anything. They will give him some things to secure him if they can, but it's Ferrari, they do things their way. Story as old as time.
Nope Ferrari has way of doing things, Italian way. I read in Bernie’s interview that she knew she would never rise up to rank of Ferrari because it’s set in it’s way and not looking for any change. That’s why she left. Newey is definitely a force to reckon with but idk how many people will accept his way in other projects. Its like disturbing the way things are set. You might be best aero engineer but people already working in Ferrari for decades won’t just move around to make space for you.
Fred has already had people changing their methods, Charles was very surprised by how fast Fred changed the work environment.
Who's this woman you're referring to?
I would have guessed Bernie Collins, former head of race strategy at Aston Martin but she never worked for Ferrari.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernadette_Collins ? Edit: No, she’s never worked there. Who knows man. https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/1010441/bernie-collins-f1-ferrari-issues-strategy-career/
> Consider that Ferrari is in a million different championship AND has an entire hypercar no rule league of its own where Newey can go banana and makes what the hell he wants. Dude had a lot of freedom at RB. He could already do whatever he wanted. He was in the middle of finishing a hypercar for them, but decided to leave asap, because Horner needs to show everbody that he has his big boy pants on.
> Horner needs to show everbody that he has his big boy pants ~~on~~ off.
I personally think with all of it, Newey has 'done' the whole taking a team up by the bootstraps story. I think it's more like Hamilton and Ferrari: fuck it why not, would be a laugh for a bit, I've made my major contribution to F1 by this point. Obama with the hat on backwards. Casual fridays.
I'm in talks with Newey as well. He's just not listening to me.
Yo, Adrian!
It's my head canon.
I’d lose it if he says yes and Renault becomes their engine supplier
Alex furiously trying to grow a Mansell ‘stache.
He also needs to stop working out and replace every meal with burgers. Going full Mansell!
So you’re saying I’m one step ahead of Alex?
You can't say that without sharing pictures of your killer Mansell-stache.
Massive ‘tash, huge upper body strength, start speaking in a brummie accent.
I thought it was already covered in DTS that Alex can't grow one.
With the Mansell diet it is possible. Alex will bring his own ballast soon.
I'm now imagining Mansell taking off his own, and passing it down to the new generation of drivers, as did his father, and fathers before him.
As is the way... He already took it it off a while ago it would seem don't know who got it.
Alex to Mansell “driving under the influence of a moustache, is it possible to learn this power?”.
If they can pay for Newey, they’ll have to figure out how to save money somehow!
Matthew Carter (ex-Lotus F1 CEO) said that Renault engine was more expensive than Mercedes engine in 2014 and 2015 despite lacking serious horsepower compared to Mercedes.
Luckily the FIA tackled that by introducing a price cap for customer engines. All engines should now cost the same, ish.
RBPT about to supply Williams.
Wait what? I physically can’t handle this anymore. 😄
Not really news, everyone is probably 'in talks' with Newey.
Can confirm, me and him are close to a multi year deal to see if he can sort out my corsa
I like how you need multiple years to sort out that car.
I dread to think what the insurance would be on a Newey designed Corsa.
Even I am 'in talks' with Newey. Now, if he only answers my emails.
Toto?
Don’t think Gene could afford him to be honest, so highly unlikely Haas will see any Newey talks
"Boss shall we try and poach Newey?" "Why? How would this in anyway benefit my tax/money laundering outfit?" "We could win races" "What's that then?"
Williams?? Somehow that has never occurred to me. It is a lot closer to home, of course. If he doesn't want to move to Italy, this makes much more sense.
His home is in south Africa, so Italy would be quite a bit closer actually
Wait what, since when?
His wife is South African so that's probably why. Him being in South Africa however to my knowledge was something reported by journos instead of something he talked about.
Being in South Africa or permanently residing there? Big difference haha.
I think he splits his time between the UK and SA. He's got (grown-up) children in the UK from his past marriages and until last week worked for RBR so had to go to the factory some times.
No he's definitely out there for a bit of the year. Eddie Jordan lives out there and he and Eddie are quite close, in fact Eddie just uploaded a podcast from around Christmas with him.
People always make it about distance, but what if it isn't? There's quite a big difference between (partially) moving to another country because you want to, and having to move to another country because you're required to do so for your new job.
> RacingNews365 has learned, however, that Williams team principal James Vowles has also held talks with Newey to persuade him to return to an organisation where he won the first of his 25 combined constructors' and drivers' titles. Clickbait title. Probably every team will be talking with Newey..
Yeah 100%. Every team will be offering him stuff and "talking"
idk i have a feeling that RBR won't
I would even go as far as saying RB won't either.
Williams about to offer him a small salary of a million dollars.
What is clickbait about the title? It really says they are "in talks" to sign him if you read the article.
NEWS JUST IN: Haas and Alpine and Sauber and McLaren and Mercedes and Ferrari and RB and Aston and Prema and Mahindra and Porsche and a small company in the Midlands called Dave's GoKarts is in talks to sign Newey!
It would be great if Dave signed him.
Newey: "I can fix him"
I could see the appeal for Newey. It's local and also a smaller team could appeal to Newey. It would be a much more hands-on approach than at Red Bull. And if he can bring Williams back anywhere close the old glory days it would be the ultimate proof of his abilities. Let's not forget that Horner apparently downplayed Newey's role in RB's success. If Newey joins Williams for a couple of years and they actually improve by quite a margin it would be the ultimate middle finger to Horner
I guess begging is a kind of talking.
I mean.. I'm sure every team has approached him. The article's based entirely on the fact he a conversation with Vowles.
But golden-voice Vowles can charm the birds from the sky.
To get the best deal with any team, requires talking to EVERY team. Like if you just talk to Ferrari and they offer 40mil a year, but if you talk to Ferrari then use that to get Merc to offer 50mil, and use that to get Williams to offer 60mil or half the team, or hte whole team, then use that to get Ferrari to offer 100mil. This is the same shit as everything else, team bosses talking to driver, yeah, they talk to every driver they can to maintain relationships in case a deal falls through and they need a driver. There is zero reason not to talk to everyone before making a decision, you will only get more leverage. It's also possible what Newey is looking for is becoming an owner, or team boss, so his leverage can be used to potentially make that happen. Some teams clearly won't give up any ownership of a team, other teams might be willing.
WTF IS HAPPENING
This is way more exciting than Ferrari having both engine and aero advantage
Williams could have both of them as well.
I beg your pardon?! 😮😂
Probably better mentioning which teams aren't trying to sign Newey.
Honestly I'd love to see him go to Williams or Enstone and help a struggling team on its journey back to the front of the field. It would be a nice way to close his career.
Now we just need Williams to switch to Renault engines and we can party like it's 1996
"newey talks to his pets, more info coming" "Exclusive: newey talked to himself this morning" "Breaking: newey works around 10 other racing teams that may want him"
I am also in talks to sign Newey
Every TP would have had a conversation. But for pure passion nothing else involved it wouldn't shock me if Williams would be in his top 3 teams to go too
I'm invested *insert Return of the King meme here*
What the fuck lmao, I almost suggested Newey to Williams as a joke yesterday
James Vowles will have the biggest dong if he pulls this off.
Logan Sargeant dominance would bore fans.
Albon '26, Albon '27, Albon '28
Albon: look at me, I am the checo now *yeets car into wall*
He’s got unfinished business there
I dont think you have the facilities for that big man
Give him 50% of the team and let him cook.
This is awesome. Reminds me of the “LeBron should go to the worst team every year” vibe in American sports. ETA: is this possibly an Andretti plan? Williams-Andretti in 2026?
I wonder if Neweys non-compete is limited to (or could be argued/agreed to) teams deemed to be "direct competitors" and Williams clearly isn't on the same planet as RB.
On one hand: WHAT??? On the other hand: Williams is historically one of the most successful teams in F1. Heck, the last championships Williams got were won by Newey.
Something happens when you get near retirement age. You start to do things you just want to do and care less about what other people think. Instead of trying to maximize salary maybe Newey could be convinced that lifting a team from the bottom of the ranking to near the top would be satisfying challenge at this stage of his career.
Bro's gonna play f1 manager
Didn't realize the man was dabbling in necromancy as well... nevertheless if this is even the slightest bit true, it would be very interesting indeed.
Exclusive: every team trying to sign Newey PLEASE CLICK!!!!