Emmet Sherry

A lot of people might not know this, but many need to cast their mind back to 2006, Adrian Newey was almost 15 years into the sport. He had great success with both Williams and McLaren by that time. In 2006, however, he had not won a title in the 2000s. By this time, his stint at Williams ended acrimoniously. His stint at McLaren saw him butting heads with Ron Dennis. He even contemplated retirement. Then came this 30-something team principal with David Coulthard and held a meeting with Newey in a cafe. Credit to Newey that he took the plunge but that 30-something team principal saw and harnessed in Adrian what the great Ron Dennis and Frank Williams couldn't. Red Bull won 4 titles from 2010 to 2013 because not only did it have Newey, it was also one of the earlier teams with some of the best correlation mechanisms in place. It took Horner to give Newey the freedom to step back during the turbo hybrid era when the team didn't have a competitive PU. And it took Horner's acumen to keep a hold of Newey for two decades, something that the great Ron Dennis and Frank Williams couldn't. Newey leaving is sad, it could impact Red Bull short-term, but if you're looking at a complete collapse of the team, you've not been paying close enough attention