James Allison and Adrian Newey: two cases in which the role of coaches was questioned
Photo: Mercedes AMG F1 and Red Bull Content Pool
At times, the world of F1 is one of extreme schizophrenia. The latest example of this is the departure of Adrian Newey from Red Bull. For a long time, the engineer was seen as the brain behind Red Bull’s success. Now, with his departure announced, there are many voices appearing on the networks saying that the “Mago” would not have that much influence on the design process of bullfighting cars…
We can still remember the situation with James Allison leaving and then returning to Mercedes. Last year, it was expected that the team would take a leap forward with the engineer’s return to technical command. However, the situation is not as simple as we are seeing…
As the contemporary philosopher says: Very calm at this time!
In the specific case of the F1 conception, long gone are the days when the process revolved around just one person. Until the 70s, it was common for the design department of an F1 team to have no more people than the fingers on two hands. Until the beginning of the 90s, the powerful McLaren had around 40 people in its technical office.
The big explosion came in the 90s, with the increased use of technology, technical departments exploded. Currently, each team has an army of technicians (between 300 and 400 people on average) to work on aerodynamics in wind tunnels, computer simulators and other things.
In this way, the Technical Director ends up having a much more coordinating role. After all, it is his role to deal with the most diverse areas to reach the final product, which is the car. It’s not just aerodynamics, but there’s the dynamics part (steering and suspensions), electrical/electronics, mechanics… These are established goals and in pursuit of the schedule. In short: a great Project Manager.
But even with all the interactions, few people can give direction to the project. In the case of Red Bull, when the new regulations were introduced in 2022, much was said that Newey participated more in the initial design and focused especially on the suspensions, which are crucial to making the car work as stable as possible to generate maximum aerodynamic pressure. . It cannot be forgotten that he was one of the few who worked a lot with ground-effect cars…
In this way, the structure’s behavior will depend greatly on the team’s culture. There may indeed be a situation of broader participation of elements, with the heads of the organization being more mentors than managers. Or simply the process becomes centralized in certain areas and, if there is a problem, the entire process suffers…
In this context, it is not possible to give all responsibility to Newey. Today, Red Bull Technology has around 1500 employees, some of whom are men and women with a very high level of education. But you cannot ignore all the experience and work capacity of one or a few individuals. The same can be deployed to other teams and this movement is increasingly gaining ground (I even wrote about this some time ago)
It is normal that, in a case like Red Bull, in a process of valuing the team, work is done to empty those who leave. But Newey was one of the thinkers and helped build the colossus that Red Bull is today (I talked about this in the column “Newerism without Newey”). The same case can be applied to James Allison, who was seen as the mastermind behind Mercedes’ success and his return did not mean an immediate improvement.
In both cases, the involvement may not be so direct. But in a scheme like F1, which requires agility and quick responses, the competence of a few can make a difference.
