F1: Mika Hakkinen extols a Red Bull man, but it’s not Max Verstappen

Mika Hakkinen extols Adrian Newey

Former Formula 1 driver and two-time world champion, Mika Hakkinen, in the course of his own column on Unibet, wanted to draw attention to a very important figure within Red Bull, a team that once again this year came out on top in both the constructors’ and drivers’ championships with Max Verstappen.

The Finn had some honeyed words for the Austrians’ technical director, Adrian Newey. With the British engineer Hakkinen worked in 1998 and 1999, the years when the then McLaren driver won the World Championship.

“I am very happy for Red Bull’s technical director. It was because of his work at McLaren that I had great cars to win both of my world titles with, and he continues to win at Red Bull years later. He really is the most successful designer in F1 history, and although I know he has a great team of design engineers working with him, his technical leadership is just brilliant. Even during the years of Mercedes’ dominance, Red Bull remained competitive, and Adrian took advantage of the new regulations this year to win another title. Congratulations to him,” said the former Lotus and McLaren driver.