Adrian Newey casts ‘outstanding’ Ayrton Senna and Max Verstappen verdicts

Adrian Newey has worked with a who’s who of iconic Formula 1 drivers, including the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

Newey, the legendary Formula 1 designer, picked out Senna and Verstappen for “outstanding” praise. He recalled the honour of giving Senna his first Williams factory tour, and how Verstappen has a “mightily impressive” ability to block out “all the noise” when he gets behind the wheel.

Adrian Newey waxes lyrical about Max Verstappen and Ayrton Senna

Newey has established himself as an F1 design guru, having contributed to a total of 26 world championship wins.

He joined Williams in 1991 and by ’92, it was the leading force, as Nigel Mansell claimed his sole Drivers’ Championship and Williams secured the Constructors’ crown. That was Newey’s first experience of F1 title success.

After adding further to his Williams tally, Newey went on to design title-winning cars for McLaren and Red Bull. He arrived at Aston Martin in March 2025, looking to transform that team into one of a championship calibre.

Appearing on the James Allen on F1 podcast, Newey was asked to identify the greatest driver out of the amazing talents he has worked with.

He focused in, firstly, on Senna, who Newey sadly only briefly worked with at Williams. The Brazilian racing icon was tragically killed in a 1994 crash at Imola.

Newey recalled how he was the person entrusted by Williams team owners Sir Frank Williams and Sir Patrick Head to give Senna his first look around their Grove base.

“Ayrton, unfortunately, was only a very short relationship,” said Newey.

“What mightily impressed me, so Ayrton, when I was at Williams, late ’93, he came to the factory for the first time, and I was given the privilege, by Frank and Patrick, of showing Ayrton around the factory.

“So he got to the wind tunnel, and straight away he was down on his hands and knees, looking at the back, at the rear suspension, spotted that that was a bit different to anything that had been done before, asking all about it: Why had we done this? Why had we done that? What was the purpose of this? Etc.

“I needed to be on my toes to answer his questions.

“So I think Ayrton, without doubt, was outstanding.”

The other driver who Newey worked with who he also places in that category, is Verstappen.

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The Dutchman has reeled off four consecutive World Championship wins with Red Bull, and has remarkably worked his way back into the hunt for a fifth straight title in F1 2025.

“Max now, I think, is absolutely outstanding as well,” Newey continued.

“He’s not had the easiest upbringing. I don’t think that’s a secret. But, his maturity, is amazing.

“His ability to handle pressure, soak up pressure. He seems to have this ability where whatever’s going on in his life, when he puts that helmet on and gets in the car, all the noise is switched off and he can just go out and race, which is mightily impressive in a sportsman, I think.”

Verstappen goes into this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix 36 points behind Lando Norris in top spot.

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