He is the F1 driver who fired Adrian Newey for being too ‘scatterbrained’ but only scored four points

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The list of names of people inside the paddock who would do anything to work alongside Adrian Newey is endless, but one former Formula 1 driver felt like he was ‘not good enough’ and fired the design genius early in his career.

Adrian Newey is the most successful designer in F1 history, with his creations going on to win an incredible 12 constructors’ championships and 14 drivers’ titles.

The effect that the 66-year-old has on teams is so great that Mika Hakkinen picked McLaren’s signing of Newey as the best moment of his career, due to the fact that he went on to win two world championships at the wheel of his inventions.

As well as the Flying Finn, the British designer has created masterpieces for some of the biggest names in the history of F1, including Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

However, not everyone felt like Newey was a helping hand within the confines of the garage, as detailed by the former F1 driver Christian Danner.

• READ MORE: Who is Adrian Newey? Everything you need to know about the legendary Aston Martin designer including net worth

Who is former F1 driver Christian Danner?

Christian Danner was born in Munich on 4 April 1958 to car safety expert Max Danner. He started his career in motor racing immediately after finishing his studies, entering a range of categories that varied from touring cars to single-seaters.

After cutting his teeth in the predecessor of what is now known as the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, or DTM for short, Danner secured a drive in the European Formula 2 championship for the 1981 season with March Racing.

He would meet Newey the following year, the second of a difficult opening couple of years for the German driver in single-seaters.

Danner found his form the following year, however, securing a string of podiums that he would add to one year later, in 1984.

He would finish his career in the intermediate class without a victory to his name, but his consistent presence as a frontrunner in F2 did earn him a step up to Formula 1 for a couple of races in the 1985 season.

Whilst Prost was busy winning titles, Danner bounced around a few F1 outfits, finally securing his first world championship points with a sixth-place finish at the 1986 Austrian Grand Prix.

Another second and last points-paying finish would come in 1989. Despite being a lap down and one of the six cars to actually take the chequered flag, Danner secured a fourth-place finish on the streets of Phoenix in the United States Grand Prix.

After qualifying for just four races during that season, Danner was fired from Rial Racing with three rounds of the season left and was subsequently unable to secure a drive elsewhere on the F1 grid.

Danner would return to DTM following his tenure in single-seaters, claiming 12 podiums, including three victories, between 1988 and 1995.

• READ MORE: Christian Danner tells Lewis Hamilton the only way he can still show people he’s a Formula 1 ‘genius’

Christian Danner recalls why Adrian Newey was ‘not good enough’ to be one of his engineers in Formula 2

Since taking up punditry duties following his retirement from an active career in motorsport, Danner has become a well-known figure for his analysis of recent Grands Prix.

In a recent appearance on the Motorsport-Magazin podcast, the German driver was asked to recall his first impressions of Newey in light of the aerodynamicist’s promotion to team principal at Aston Martin for the 2026 season.

Danner said, “Yes, yes, so this is legendary. Adrian Newey was working at March Engineering with my Formula 2 team. And he was my engineer, my track engineer.

“But back in 1982, he was so scatterbrained and couldn’t get anything right, making one mistake after another, that I simply fired him. You’re just not good enough.

“I have to say, in my defence, I had no idea. I was so young and had absolutely no experience. I didn’t need an engineer who also had no experience, and that was the case with Adrian.

“So, I am the only driver in the history of world motorsport who has relieved the best designer of all time of his job. But Adrian and I still laugh about it today.

He, too, admitted that I wasn’t entirely wrong. But we have both, I would say, developed quite healthily and have a really warm relationship with each other.”