Adrian Newey on 2014: “Mild panic and crisis management…”

Adrian Newey admits that even Red Bull Racing is struggling to prepare for the huge rule changes coming for 2014.

He joked that the team still needed six months to prepare for the first race.

“I think from our perspective it’s somewhere between mild panic and crisis management,” said Newey at the Autosport Awards on Sunday. “Next year’s regulations are a huge change, a very complicated power train. I think for a lot of teams, including ourselves, it really is a big challenge.

“Reliability could be a big issue, it’s far from clear how the three engine manufacturers will perform relative to each other. We’ve got the aerodynamic changes. So it is a complete clean start, unfortunately. All we can do is do our best and see where we are, that’s the only thing we can do.

“I think there’s some trepidation. I think the engine regulation changes are a big challenge for everybody, how that will pan out, who knows? We’re all sort of feeling it is going to be mildy difficult, and we are about six months off being prepared for the start of the season. But that is the nature of F1. Somehow or other it always seems to be alright on the night, hopefully. We’ll see.”

Perhaps not surprisingly he countered suggestions that the sport’s recent era was not a good one.

“I think it’s been a great few years. You have the combination of man and machine as always. Unfortunately, or fortunately for us, Sebastian made the second half of the year slightly boring, but you go back to last year, six winners in the first six races I think [actually seven]. The variety, the overtaking, it’s been a magic time.”