Red Bull's technical department is the "strongest" in the team's Formula 1 history despite Adrian Newey stepping back, says team boss Christian Horner. As Chief Technical Officer, Newey has been responsible for overseeing Red Bull's development, guiding them to six Drivers' and five Constructors' titles since joining from McLaren in 2006. However, the 64-year-old has increasingly spent time focusing on projects outside of F1, including an attempt at Sailing's Americas Cup with four-time Olympic Gold medalist, Sir Ben Ainslie. Despite Newey being focused elsewhere and reducing his day-to-day responsibilities, Horner believes the technical department at Milton Keynes is stronger than ever.
Horner on Newey change
"Over the last few years, Adrian has stepped back from day-to-day responsibility in Formula 1 and he splits his time between [Red Bull] Advanced Technology and Formula 1," Horner explained to Auto Motor und Sport. "He has an encyclopaedic knowledge and what we've seen during the last couple of years, which has been fantastic, is the technical team has really stepped up under Pierre [Wache's] leadership with Enrico Balbo (Head of Aerodynamics), Ben Waterhouse (Head of Performance Engineering) and Craig Skinner (Chief Designer). "I believe it's the strongest technical team we've had and that's enabled Adrian to go off and do the Valkyrie project and now the RB17. "Of course Adrian is still there to be drawn on, but not on a day-to-day basis. "Maybe 50% of his time is focused on Formula 1. He's in the office probably a couple of days a week on average. "When his attention is needed, he's there to be drawn on by the technical group."
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