And the Austrian team knows that all too well, so they’ve decided to make him a big surprise during this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Newey was gifted the team’s RB5 car, a challenger that practically set the cornerstone of Red Bull’s revolution last year. This was the first car from Red Bull to win a race – the 2009 Chinese GP – and will this weekend be driven by Newey at the Festival.
“The guys have obviously put a tremendous amount of effort into preparing the car for me. You can see it - the paint and the lines are absolutely perfect, the work that's gone into doing the helmet and everything else is incredible. Also, the fact that the guys have given up a weekend to come down here and run it for me is fantastic,” said Newey.
“I was nervous before my first run, as I'd never driven a car with a hand clutch before and had never left-foot braked expect in a go-kart - but it's really fantastic to drive. A slight fright was that I wasn't prepared for how long first gear is, so as I was pulling out of the paddock it was pushing me on a lot.”
“•I was saying to myself 'hand clutch, hand clutch', but the automatic reaction is to go for the left foot! We went up the hill on wet tires, so it was a gentle drive. It's just so great to be in the car and it's such a great noise from the inside.”
“The plan now is to club together with some other guys I know who are lucky enough to have cars and hire a circuit, preferably a modern one with a bit of run off where I can enjoy driving the car without worrying about having a spin in front of a crowd!” concluded the British car designer.
Google News