Mark Hughes: Why F1 rule changes are basis of Adrian Newey’s success

Listening to Adrian Newey talk about the latest world championship-winning car with which he’s been associated (his 16th, encompassing three different teams), he points out that the foundation for any sequence of success he has enjoyed has always been a new set of technical regulations. His cars have not always immediately won in the first season of the new regs, but they have invariably been the basis for a dynamite succession.

Newey’s response to the mixing up of the variables marks him out. The way he can decouple or link in a new way, the intuitive feel he seems to have for the re-assigned order of importance of different variables and his understanding of the levers of control to arrive at the new optimum mix, are uncanny.

The success of the 2023 Red Bull RB19 was built upon the fundamentals laid down in the first season of the current ground effect regulations in 2022. “What I’ve tried to do,” he says, “is when there’s a big regulation change try to read the regs and come up with a car with a philosophy to suit those regs and as long as the car is half-decent, evolve it.”

That ‘half-decent’ car was the RB18, winner of 17 of that season’s 22 races. It was unique in the way its aerodynamics and suspension were conceived almost as one system, something that is only now being fully appreciated elsewhere. The theoretical maximum downforce available from these underbodies is not accessible because of the limitation imposed by bouncing, both aerodynamic and mechanical. But a floor design prioritising constantly good downforce over the full speed and ride height range, one which keeps pulling like the aerodynamic equivalent of a big torquey engine rather than a high-end screamer, is what that car laid down.

To facilitate it, it had the super-tight platform control required to keep the car level even with softer springs. Like this, it could run at ride heights out of bounds to the others, even if its peak downforce was nothing remarkable.

That Newey had grasped this is suggested by the fact that he designed the RB18’s suspension himself. “We put a lot of work into the fundamentals… architectural layouts, front and rear suspension layouts, but really we didn’t start putting all our efforts in developing the aero of last year’s car until quite late in the ’21 season.” Those fundamentals were built upon with more aggressive aero for ’23.

The first F1 car with which he is credited, the 1988 Leyton House March 881, remains one of his favourites and represented for him a new set of regulations. It didn’t win anything, but it came close. More significantly, it was the blueprint for the cars he designed for Williams from 1991-94, encompassing two drivers’ titles and three constructors’.

At a time when all other cars had two separate wings bolted to a central nose, the Leyton House featured a combined nose-wing with an undercut on the underside, lowering the air pressure and causing the airflow to rush to fill the vacuum. It not only worked the front wing harder but fed the underbody. Its endplates were sculpted in a way which kept the gap between endplate and tyre consistent as the wheel was steered. It was also tiny. It was way more sophisticated than anything else out there.

There was a big regulation change for ’95. The undertray had to feature a stepped section beneath the sidepod. There were reductions in wing sizes and dimensional changes around the cockpit. Newey wasn’t happy with the Williams FW17 but as he re-read the rules, he spotted a chance. “Although the reference plane specified a width and the step plane had to be 50mm above that at each side, at no point did it say the step plane had to extend to the rear axle, like the reference plane did. So you could consider the step plane ending at the edge of the rear wheel. There was this grey area where you had freedom to cut in above the reference plane to give a much bigger diffuser exit. The diffusers were exit-limited and by undercutting it we got a huge advantage by drawing more mass flow through it.” The FW17B was introduced in late ’95. With a bigger diffuser than the others that advantage carried into the dominant 1996 FW18 and ’97 FW19.

“His first F1 car, the 1988 Leyton House March 881, is one of his favourites”

Coinciding with Newey’s move to McLaren, there was a big regulation change for ’98, with narrower cars. When he arrived the team was already planning to reduce the centre of gravity by lowering the nose. What Newey added was the unique chassis shape of the MP4-13. The regulation stated a simple width and depth measurement, implying a rectangular section. By putting a fin on the top edges of the chassis, the regulation depth could be achieved much further from the ground, allowing a V-shaped bottom which cleared a lot more airflow space beneath. It was the basis of McLarens to 2001.

It was his Red Bull RB5 which became the template for the next few years. Chassis shape was key. Using fins he was able to meet the depth requirement allowing him to round-off the chassis bottom, facilitating a far more powerful vortex travelling down the car than on the square-edged chassis of other cars. Pull-rod rear suspension became the new norm after this car, something he overturned with the pushrod of the RB18.

“As long as you have a decent first year under the new regs and evolve it, you should do OK. If you do a clean sheet every year you’re probably going to struggle because you’re always a step behind.” They might not be words Ferrari or Mercedes want to hear…”

Since he began covering grand prix racing in 2000, Mark Hughes has forged a reputation as the finest Formula 1 analyst of his generation
Follow Mark on Twitter @SportmphMark