Max Verstappen has been unjustly "demonized" according to Newey
F1. Freshly recruited by Aston Martin for the 2025 season, Adrian Newey took stock of his years at Red Bull, mentioning in particular unfair media treatment towards the current triple world champion Max Verstappen.
As his mission with Red Bull will come to an end at the end of the 2024 season, Adrian Newey took the opportunity of the officialization of his future arrival at Aston Martin to look back on his years spent within the Austrian company. In a long interview given to the podcast High Performance, the engineer notably mentioned the media treatment received by Max Verstappen, which he considers harsh.
From the outside, I'm not sure that people appreciate and fully understand Max, just like they didn't with Sebastian [Vettel], said the British. There is this kind of demonization that both of them have suffered from at times, which is very unfair.
Adrian Newey believes that the media in the UK are partly responsible for this phenomenon: « Maybe it's also a bit due to the British media, if I'm honest. Sky has a huge influence worldwide. Even if the audience is not truly international, their coverage is quite nationalist, if I may say so, and that can have an influence... It's this thing now with journalism, typically... there's this tendency to put people on a pedestal or to bring them down. »
Praises made to the Dutch
Adrian Newey did not skimp on praise for Max Verstappen. Quadruple world champion constructor with Red Bull (2010-2014) shortly after his arrival in Milton Keynes in 2006, the virtuoso engineer saw the arrival of the Dutchman in 2016. He witnessed the birth of the phenomenon, allowing the team to reach the top again.
« I think he's very smart [...] we almost get the impression that he can drive the car automatically. » Newey said. « This is not the case, of course, but he can drive the car and he still has so much processing power left that he can then think a lot about how he drives it, how he handles the tires, what he might need to do with the settings. If he doesn't do it, if he's not sure, he asks the race engineer on the radio what he should do, but focusing on the issues. »
The British engineer believes that Max Verstappen has always set aside the criticisms that have been made to him and relies on his self-confidence. "I think, honestly, that Max is so sure of himself," he said. "It's positive. It's not negative. There's arrogance and confidence. Max isn't arrogant, but he is very confident in himself and in his abilities, and he is a deep thinker."
Newey also compared Verstappen to another former world champion, Fernando Alonso. « The way he reads races is fascinating. Fernando [Alonso] is another driver capable of reading races. When you don't give the drivers information, you wonder how they know. Sometimes, they tell you "I know because I saw it on the big screens" but it's incredible to be able to do that. Adrian Newey can be happy. After working together in recent years with Verstappen, he will work with the Spaniard for the first time in his career next year.
