Red Bull showed their appreciation of Adrian Newey’s work since joining the team at the start of 2006 by presenting him with an RB5 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The aerodynamicist drove last season’s car at Goodwood today, and will return to the cockpit tomorrow.
Newey was very grateful of the team’s gift: “I'm overcome actually,” he said. “The guys have obviously put a tremendous amount of effort into preparing the car for me. You can see it – the paint and the lines are absolutely perfect, the work that's gone into doing the helmet and everything else is incredible. Also, the fact that the guys have given up a weekend to come down here and run it for me is fantastic.
“I was nervous before my first run, as I'd never driven a car with a hand clutch before and had never left-foot braked expect in a go-kart – but it's really fantastic to drive. A slight fright was that I wasn't prepared for how long first gear is, so as I was pulling out of the paddock it was pushing me on a lot. I was saying to myself 'hand clutch, hand clutch', but the automatic reaction is to go for the left foot! We went up the hill on wet tyres, so it was a gentle drive. It's just so great to be in the car and it's such a great noise from the inside.
“The plan now is to club together with some other guys I know who are lucky enough to have cars and hire a circuit, preferably a modern one with a bit of run off where I can enjoy driving the car without worrying about having a spin in front of a crowd!”
