Verstappen claimed his second world title in dominant fashion this year, scoring a record 15 wins throughout the season driving the Red Bull RB18 car, while Red Bull also clinched its first constructors’ title since 2013.
The RB18’s dominance came despite an extended development cycle for the RB16B in 2021, when Verstappen was locked in a close championship fight with Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton.
Many teams opted to end their development at the start of 2021 to focus on the revised regulations for 2022, but Red Bull opted to continue making updates to help Verstappen’s successful title bid.
Red Bull was recognized for its success at Sunday’s Autosport Awards as the RB18 won the International Race Car of the Year award, with the gong being collected by Newey and the Red Bull Technical Team.
Newey said the success of the RB18 car had been “very special”, especially given the late shift to the 2022 focus which he said might have come sooner.
“We had a fairly short development period, particularly as we continued to develop last year’s car in the championship battle, arguably longer than we should have,” said Newey at Autosport after receiving the award.
“It gave us a lot to do during the winter. What we tried to focus on was getting the fundamentals of the car in place like this year’s car and then hoping that would give us the development potential to refine it.
“Fortunately that’s how it turned out.”
Adrian Newey OBE interviewed on the red carpet
Photo by: Nils Jorgensen / Motorsport Images
Red Bull fought neck and neck with Ferrari throughout the first part of the season, only for their in-season development to allow them to comfortably emerge as the fastest team after the summer break. .
The team has won 10 of the last 11 races, allowing both titles to be concluded sooner by setting a new record for points scored by a team in a single season.
Newey said on stage at Grosvenor House that he thought Ferrari were ahead in pre-season testing, but Red Bull’s aim was to make a car that would perform well on all tracks.
“In reality, Ferrari, in pre-season, was probably faster,” Newey said.
“We had a very good and efficient first race upgrade. It made it really close and then it was really a close battle at the start. Ferrari was faster in some races, we were faster in others.
“We learned from that and tried to make a well-balanced car for the second half of the season, to make sure it worked on all circuits. I think we all collectively did a decent job there.
