Best F1 Designer?

    There have been many dominant F1 teams in its history, such as Ferrari in the early 2000s, Reb Bull from 2010-2013, and Mercedes between 2014 through 2020. However, people often credit the driver and overlook the people who built the car because no matter how good the driver is, he will be nothing without a good car, just like Lewis Hamilton, widely considered the greatest of all time, who was struggling to win any races in the last two years because his team cannot build a good car. Nevertheless, who is the best F1 designer of all time? Throughout its 73 years, there have been many great F1 designers, such as Colin Chapman, credited with pioneering the reclined seating position in 1962, which is still used today, or Rory Byrne, the man responsible for Michael Schumacher’s seven world titles, and responsible for Ferrari’s dominance between 2000-2004. However, who is the best out of all of these? This title goes to Adrian Newey because he has the most wins and titles, the most innovations introduced in F1, and the reason for the most drivers’ successes.

     The top F1 designers, such as Colin Chapman and Rory Byrne, each have many titles and wins to boast. Colin Chapman, the founder of the legendary F1 team Lotus, has an impressive 79 race wins, even though many would argue that number would be much higher if there were more races per season, seeing as how during Team Lotus’ dominance, there was an average of roughly 15 races per year, compared to recently, where there are 23 races per year. More impressively, Rory Byrne has 99 wins, and considering the resources that Ferrari was able to provide him, there is no surprise he was able to deliver the most dominant F1 car of its era, the Ferrari F2004, that was so fast that Ferrari mechanics doubted themselves of how fast it was. However, many people forget about Adrian Newey, the Red Bull F1 Team, and their number 1 driver, Sebastian Vettel’s dominance between 2010 through 2013, with the team winning 41 out of 78 races in those four years and delivering a record of 9 race wins in a row, a record that was equaled only in 2022. Speaking of 2022, he also won the W.D.C. and the W.C.C. once again, showing a dominance that was absent from the team nine years before. However, before his days at Red Bull, he also worked at Williams and made two championship-winning cars back to back in 1996 and 1997, winning one with Damon Hill and one with Jacques Villenvue. In his entire career, Adrian Newey has won 12 world driver’s championships and five world constructor's championships. 

However, being dominant in a racing sport is not enough to assert themselves as the greatest of all time; they must include their changes to the sport. Colin Chapman has made some of the most innovations to the modern F1 car, such as the reclined seating position, which had the drivers lay down inside the cockpit instead of sitting straight up. However, sequential transmission is the greatest invention of all time in F1. Old F1 cars would have a manual transmission, which included a clutch pedal and a stick shift. Changing one gear took roughly 1.5 seconds, but the sequential transmission would change gears in 150 milliseconds by pulling one paddle on the steering wheel, reducing physical effort and making the cars significantly faster. He introduced this in his 1992 Williams FW14B, which their lead driver, Nigel Mansell, used to win the WDC that year. 

However, another thing that defines a great F1 engineer is that most drivers have successfully driven their cars. To determine how many drivers have succeeded, the best comparison would be to determine how many drivers won the World Driver’s Championship or the WDC. Colin Chapman stayed with one team for the entirety of his F1 career, but many drivers came and left while he was the team leader at Lotus. While building one of the most dominant F1 cars, Rory Byrne only won a championship with one person, Michael Schumacher. Compared to Colin Chapman, who won 6 WDCs with Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Mario Andretti, and Emerson Fittipaldi with one WDC each, and his treasured Jim Clark with 2 WDCs. Nevertheless, once again, Adrian Newey jumps ahead in this comparison, with a total of 6 different drivers winning a combined 12 WDC, those six drivers being Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen. This is important because many people believe that F1 designers only build cars to suit one particular driver, but having the flexibility to be able to design such cars for such a wide variety of people, to be able to have each one of them succeed is another true mark of a great engineer.

Many people would argue that Ross Brawn is the greatest F1 designer of all time because he bought Honda Racing F1 Team, a struggling team at the time, renamed it to Brawn GP, and won the 2009 WDC with Jenson Button and the WCC before selling the team to Mercedes the following year and propelling them towards a 7-year domination. However, many people also need clarification on the fact that Ross Brawn was a great team principal, which meant he managed the entire team but did not design the car. While his work as a team principal is commendable, he did not actively design the car to the extent that Adrian Newey, Rory Byrne, or Colin Chapman did.

While all of these F1 designers are some of the best designers in the world, it is not hard to say that some are the best. It would be harder to say who is the best of the best. However, these statistics show the 198 wins and 23 championships that Adrian Newey has won, or the numerous inventions he has made, such as the sequential gearbox or the active suspension, or even the six different drivers who have won a championship with his cars, it is not hard to rule out, that Adrian Newey is the best F1 designer of all time.