Newey: "Never experienced so much politics and lobbying in one season"

After an exciting first half of the season, Max Verstappen's Red Bull Racing is in second place in both the driver and constructor standings. Before the Silverstone and Hungarian races, the Milton Keynes-based team had a comfortable lead, but due to Mercedes-caused accidents, they are now trailing. In any case, it is a special season, Adrian Newey agrees.

Compliment

The experienced designer is well versed in Formula 1, but still says he hasn't experienced a season like this before. He is particularly referring to the battles that are not fought on the track. To Formel1.de he says: "The thing is, the top teams are always only interested in what their main rivals are doing and don't care much about what a team at the back of the grid is doing."

"In many ways, it's a compliment to the team that we are being watched so closely by others. We've been through this before, but I don't recall us ever experiencing so much politics and lobbying behind the scenes against our car," the Brit is referring to Mercedes' allegations against the flexwings, for example.

2022

Newey also looks ahead to the plans for 2022 and how this will affect the current season: "We need to develop this year's car because we have a chance of winning the title at this point, but at the same time we can't just focus on this year and ignore the future. We are doing our best to keep those two balls up and at the same time deal with the budget cut, which as everyone knows has meant that we have unfortunately had to downsize the team in some areas."