F1 2017 Championship Hamilton’s Best: Newey

Red Bull Racing designer Adrian Newey was hugely impressed with Lewis Hamilton’s F1 2017 championship run. He also admired the way in which the Briton achieved his title. Newey is one of Formula 1’s most successful designers. He has worked with top-notch teams like Williams, McLaren and Red Bull. The Officer of the Order of the British Empire awardee is normally eagle-eyed regarding rival team’s cars and their drivers’ performance.

Hamilton won his fourth title in eleven seasons. He took his Grand Prix win tally to 62 victories, just 29 short of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 91. A number of experts have attributed Hamilton’s success to the Mercedes’ dominance. Newey, on the other hand, believed that the Mercedes driver’s strength and brilliance behind the wheel of his Silver Arrows is the key factor.

Newey said, “I think his early championships were a bit up and down. But the championship he’s just put together this year was without doubt, in my opinion, his best one. He’s put together such a strong campaign, there haven’t been any weak races. He’s known when to battle and when to let a position go rather than taking himself out.”

Besides talking about the F1 2017 championship, Newey spoke about the effect Senna’s death had on him. The 58-year old admitted that he toyed with the idea of quitting Formula 1. He was Williams’ chief designer when the three-time world champion was killed. Senna had crash the FW16 at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, running straight on at the Tamburello curve and into the barriers.

In the present day, there are still a number of theories about the crash. Some of these range from a steering column failure, to a slow puncture, to driver error. In those days, the Imola circuit was extremely bumpy and the FW16 was not an easy beast to tame.