Newey: Theoretically I'm in charge of everybody but...

Last year's Red Bull RB18 was the best F1 car ever, or at least since F1 models became seasonal, winning 17 out of 22 races, but this year's RB19 seems even better, particularly in Max Verstappen's hands, and talk of it winning every race in 2023 is getting louder, as it remains unbeaten after seven races. Five wins to the Dutchman and a couple for Sergio Perez, whose F1 career has skyrocketed since he joined the team.

The new F1 rules that kicked in last year, after a one-year COVID-19-caused delay, was always going to favour an inspired Newey. Indeed inspired, as there have been periods when he has drifted in and out of the role of RBR tech boss; noticeably when Mercedes dominated thanks to their, then, unbeatable Power Unit.

History shows that 64-year-old Newey's greatest creations tend to be when new rules kick in, his genius thriving on the challenges of a new beginning, which F1 has had over its history, this set of rules are in force until the end of 2025 when a new batch kicks in.

The current edition probably began life in 2020, when this generation of rules became the template for the current F1 cars, on a blank piece of paper on Newey's famed old-school drawing board. But how did it evolve into these two dominant machines of the past two years?

Newey gave insight into the RBR operation he now runs when he told Sky Italia: "Theoretically I'm in charge of everybody but I never look at it that way. We try to run a very flat structure, where we encourage everyone to communicate and minimise the email culture, encourage people to talk.

"If it's an aero designer, talk to the guy designing the mechanical solution for that aerodynamic shape. I think it's about trying to have a very involving place to work. Then we have some very good senior engineers too."

For Red Bull, Max and Checo fans these are glorious days. More so for those who were won over by the team during their first heyday - when Sebastian Vettel led them to eight consecutive drivers' and constructors' F1 titles - and more so for those who hopped on board when Dietrich Mateschitz began the incredible racing dynasty the organisation are now.

At the Canadian Grand Prix, next weekend, Red Bull can win their 100th Grand Prix on the day of what will be their 355th F1 race since their debut as a constructor (having taken over the Jaguar/Ford F1 operation) at the 2005 Australian Grand Prix with David Coulthard and Christian Klein the drivers.

Now nearly two decades later, Red Bull leads this year's F1 constructors' championship by a massive 135 points, while Verstappen and Perez are well ahead in the drivers' standings at this point with no end in sight, as their rivals (barring Aston Martin) were all caught napping.

Verstappen's early 2022 season trip-up ended around this time last year, after a sluggish start to his first F1 title defence, Newey and his team unleashed the true potential of the car while the Honda made all the right power to ensure Max, and to a lesser extent, Checo dominated the rest of the season.

And it hasn't stopped, at least not for Verstappen who - after bruising defeats in Jeddah and Baku - the double F1 World Champion raised his game a notch or two, which has chasing Perez on the ropes. The Dutch ace heads to Montreal seeking a hat-trick of wins, following his fine victories in Monaco and Spain.

But nothing is being taken for granted at Milton Keynes according to Newey: "We have to assume we are going to get pushed, so we have to keep developing. In F1, as soon as you become slightly complacent, you can be overtaken quite quickly. The regulations for next year are quite stable. Whatever we do in research for this year, will still be relevant for next year."

Notably the second-best F1 car of the year, the Aston Martin AMR23 in Fernando Alonso's hands, if painted Red Bull blue might be hard to distinguish apart from the RB18 of last year. Perez, with Max and Alonso next to him, cheekily remarked after the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix that it was "nice to see three Red Bull cars on the podium."

Acknowledging that 'copycatting' in F1 and brain-drain are part of the sport, Newey admitted: "It's a serious compliment when people copy. It's part of F1 of course. We all look at each other. In truth, we have copied things from other people as well. Some of that copying is visual, and some of it is occasionally from people moving around; we have seen that this year.

"It's part of F1, it's an intense competition. You can't have pride. You have got to always evaluate what others are doing. You might end up directly copying it or it might give you ideas of 'why have they done that' and does that make you do something differently."

Often on the grid before races, Newey is seen gravitating around rival cars, gazing intently, oblivious to the grid-glitterati and rolling cameras, fixing his gaze on parts of interest. He explained why: "More often than not it's, 'this looks interesting. Let's have a look at what our car does in this area in detail and does what they have done spark any ideas of how we might develop our own car.' Not necessarily by simply copying but why have they done that and does that bring any ideas."

Looking back on the journey from the introduction of the new rules, Newey recalled: "I have to admit when the rules came out in 2020, they appeared very restrictive and I was quite concerned all the cars would look identical. There was a bit of relaxation because I think a lot of teams felt that way.

"Once we got into the detail through 2021, it became apparent there was more flexibility with different designs than appeared at first sight. Particularly in the sidepod shapes, there has been a huge variety. We don't have the resources, when we are researching a car, to explore all avenues. So quite early on you go: right this is the avenue we want to purse; and off you go.

"Then you come out and see all these solutions and think: Oh crikey have we missed something? Just because we started the year quite level with Ferrari, you don't know which is going to be the best route eventually. Is it going to be Mercedes that perhaps they can develop further?

"Should we look more at what Ferrari did with their shape? In the end, we had a very quick look at the Mercedes to see what they were trying to achieve. We didn't look at Ferrari and mainly concentrated on developing our own car and luckily we seem to have had a decent solution."

A brand new era dawns in 2026, Audi are in F1 for the first time. Ford are back as Red Bull partners and an extra team or two may be on the grid. The PU regulations will favour ERS systems while ditching the MGU-H element of the package.

Red Bull know what they have in Newey and have him inked into the team for the long term. Clearly enthused by having the best driver in Verstappen driving his masterpieces, Nedwey also relishes how close it is at the top with the current rules: "When the hybrid regulations first came in, there were huge differences. Mercedes did a fantastic job with their power unit and others were varying levels behind.

"Now it's closed up so I would say there's maybe two or three per cent in the power difference, which is 0.2 to 0.3s difference perhaps, which when the grid is so tight, is still a big number. But it's not like the one second when the regulations came out," Newey pointed out.

His record in F1 speaks for itself - with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull - Newey cars have won 11 F1 constructors' championships and 12 F1 drivers' titles along the way, and a good chance it will be +1 to the totals of both those incredible stats, come to the end of 2023.

And, of course, it would be wise to put money on Red Bull winning their 100th F1 race, on the occasion of next Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix. Thank you, Mr Newey!