Adrian Newey has revealed that he was once approached to create a spaceship during his time in Formula 1.
The legendary designer has won a total of 12 Constructors' titles across teams including Red Bull, Williams, and McLaren.
He also recently revealed that he was contacted by Ferrari to join the team on two occasions; 1993 and 2014 but ultimately turned them down.
After his success with Red Bull through 2010 through to 2013 in which Sebastian Vettel won four titles, Newey was approached by a company in the US with a rather unconventional request.
"An American company did ring me up, about 10 years ago now, to ask if I would be interested in joining them to work on a spacecraft," he told Top Gear magazine.
"It would be fascinating, and the space race in the Sixties must have been incredibly stimulating. But I find motor racing more fascinating. There’s a tremendous pace of development and involvement in motor racing. I like that."
When asked if he would like to work on a spacecraft, Newey replied: "Dangerous, I think. There is a requirement for them to come back in one piece!"
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AI affect F1 in the future?
With it currently dominating the technology industry, Newey was asked about the possibility of AI technology affecting F1 in the future.
While there has been automated systems on cars in previous years, such as traction or launch control, Newey believes it will serve a more general purpose to race car design.
"At some point it will, but it’s much more difficult to ascertain the timeline," said Newey.
"AI is a broad buzzword term but it’s really an extension of ‘machine learning’ with a bit of internet thrown in, and that’s been around for ages.
"We’ve been using stress analysis optimisers for years [FEA or finite element analysis] but the human ultimately still seems to be better than the optimiser. It’s a tool but they absolutely do not replace the human."
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