Adrian Newey claim made over working with Lewis Hamilton or Fernando Alonso
Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are the two longest serving members of the F1 grid.
Formula 1 pundit Peter Windsor believes that while Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey would have enjoyed working with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, qualifying weaknesses are among the factors that could have made Alonso “frustrating”.
Newey, Hamilton and Alonso are all legendary figures in the world of Formula 1, though their paths have not crossed in terms of working in a team together over their illustrious careers.
And recently, speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Newey admitted it was an “emotional regret” to not have worked with either driver, all three parties looking very likely to see out their F1 careers with their current employers.
Lewis Hamilton would have won trophies for fun with Adrian Newey
It was back in 2006 when Newey made the move from McLaren to Red Bull, a year before Hamilton made his debut with McLaren.
And former Ferrari and Williams team manager Windsor has “no doubt” that Hamilton and Newey at Red Bull would have been a match made in heaven.
“Of course, Adrian don’t forget is, above all, a racer,” said Windsor in his YouTube livestream. “Racing driver, he’d probably like to be described as who designs race cars in his spare time.
“And so why wouldn’t he want to work with Lewis Hamilton? Why wouldn’t he want to work with Fernando Alonso? Why wouldn’t he want to work with Charles Leclerc? He would.
“How would it have worked out? It depends when of course he would have done it. No doubt at all in my mind that if Lewis had gone to Red Bull when Adrian went to Red Bull or as soon as he could have, he would have won a million championships and races along the way, absolutely.
“I think Adrian would have loved to work with Lewis and they would have been so compatible one with another.”
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Adrian Newey may have found Fernando Alonso “frustrating”
Alonso to Red Bull is a move that has cropped up in the F1 rumour mill several times over the years, though is a driver and team pairing that never came to pass.
And while Windsor believes that Newey would have enjoyed working with Alonso, he reckons it could also have proven somewhat “frustrating”.
Windsor is not sure Alonso would have always got the best out of Red Bull machinery in qualifying, while setup confusion and front-end demands could have also irked Newey.
“I think Adrian would have enjoyed working with Fernando, because Fernando is such a racer and Adrian being a racer would love all that,” said Windsor.
“But I think he would have probably found Fernando a bit frustrating in not maybe getting the best from the car sometimes in qualifying and going around in circles a bit with setup and possibly demanding too much in the front end.
“It would have been fun working with those guys, shame that it never happened.”
Hamilton is under contract with Mercedes until the end of 2025, while Aston Martin are already keen to extend Alonso’s deal beyond 2024.
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