Newey the greatest F1 designer?

[DaveKillens]

I'm a gigantic fan of great engineers and designers, from Colin Chapman to Barnes Wallis, to Alec Issigonis to Jack Northrop to Ed Heinemann to Norbert Singer. A casual fan could just add up the numbers and arrive at a shallow assumption, but there are many factors that do not show up in the final tally of the record books.

And do we discount designers who did not participate directly in Formula One, but had a huge impact on the sport? Where do such great minds as Jim Hall, Smokey Yunick, Harold Miller, and even the Woods brothers figure into this picture?

No doubt Adrian Newey is earning every penny of whatever small fortune Dietrich Mateschitz is paying him, but right now he's got it all going his way. He isn't fighting a reluctant bureaucracy or lack of support, or even a hostile staff. That makes a huge difference, where a designer is given whatever support he desires.

And what about Dan Gurney, or Jack Brabham, or Bruce McLaren who not only raced, but raced and won in cars of their own design?

Newey is good, but if he stands on the top step, he has to share it with others just as worthy.

Here's one name that deserves to stand on the top step.

Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti

[thisisatest]

More than one post mentions Gordon Murray as missing, but he is number 6.
Sorry, that's all I have.

[timbo]

I have my reasons to agree that its perfectly fine that Barnard is not on that list...

Yeah, he was not without controversies, but out of key elements that define current F1 technologies at least two, namely, CF-tube and semi-automatic gearbox were debuted on his cars.

[krisfx]

How about Gordon Murray and John Barnard?

Yeah, the list certainly looks strange without Barnard. I guess the list should be called the most successful F1 designer, and for that I would agree with the top-three, but greatest is so oblique. I would call Barnard, Postlethwaite and Chapman as the greatest designers as they shaped F1 the way we see it, whereas Byrne and Newey work within the framework of the rules. And of course we can argue ad nauseum as to what would be Byrne and Newey capable of had they appeared at the time of less restrictive rules.

Newey has got this

Which is just a huge model built by a model building company. That car is nothing but theory. Granted, though I am a massive Adrian Newey fan and think he's the best in F1, I almost collapsed standing outside his office 0.o

[gold333]

What a weird list, like the maker didn't know about Neil Oatley, the designer of the most dominant F1 cars from 1988-1991.

[munudeges]

The difficulty with judging stuff like this is that you have to read between the lines as to who really is responsible for success in a team. Newey is a given because things don't happen by accident like that in engineering.

As for the late 80s McLaren that was all Gordon Murray's thinking from his time at Brabham. Once that course was set other engineers merely came in and tinkered around the edges - namely Neil Oatley. Before Murray it was all John Barnard. I find it very difficult to take seriously any list that doesn't include John Barnard and I'm afraid Rory Byrne, with as much as respect as I might have for him, should not be at number three.

[piast9]

Frankly speaking I have greater respect to guys transforming F1 and inventing or successfully reintroducing rear-engined cars, aerodynamics, engine as stressed member, metal then composite monocoque. In my opinion they were the inventions which in greater degree depended on brain and engineering genius than on the money.

Today we have strict rules and true inventions are very very limited. The last really groundbreaking inventions were the semiautomatic gearbox and active suspension. The rest is just an evolution.

[stfn_ger]

Newey legacy in F1 has lasted for almost 20 years now, I am not sure if there are any other F1 designers that could actually beat that.

1992 – Williams FW14B
1993 – Williams FW15C
1994 – Williams FW16
1996 – Williams FW18
1997 – Williams FW19
1998 – McLaren MP4/13
2010 – Red Bull RB6
2011 – Red Bull RB7
2012 – Red Bull RB8

And if you would now add Rory Byrne's title-winning cars to that list it would be clear how much of a duell between those two great engineers the last 20 years have been. I think the only titles without one of them being involved have been Renaults titles in 05 and 06. To bad Rory decided to focus on diving and fishing in southeast Asia some years ago.