He laid the foundation for Mercedes’ record-breaking hybrid-era run with Lewis Hamilton before the poacher turned gamekeeper to run the whole F1 show. I saw him recently. He is supposedly retired but only 69 – and I reckon I could pull him back for one last job. There would be no one better.
Designer: Adrian Newey
I should have asked while sitting next to him at the Autocar Awards earlier this year. The world championship count is up to 25 now. That’s twenty-five.
Thirteen drivers’ titles with Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Häkkinen, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen; 12 constructors’ crowns with three teams – Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.
No one else comes close for hit rate or longevity. Uniting Brawn and Newey would be the racing equivalent of De Niro and Pacino sharing a screen for the first time in the film Heat.
Paths should have crossed in 1986, at the short-lived Ford-backed Haas squad (no relation to the current team owned by Gene rather than Carl), but thereafter they always worked against rather than for each other.
Imagine the combined brain power. Newey mumbles about retiring, but at 64 he’s still addicted to winning – and surely that’s now too easy at Red Bull. So one last throw of the dice with your old nemesis, Adrian? C’mon in.