Adrian Newey names ‘whinging’ F1 world champion he worked with who was ‘misunderstood’

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Adrian Newey has had the pleasure of working with some incredible drivers during his long and storied Formula 1 career.

The announcement that Aston Martin have secured Adrian Newey’s services for 2025 and beyond didn’t come as a surprise after months of speculation about his next destination after leaving Red Bull.

However, it will give current drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll hope that when the next set of regulations are introduced in 2026 – which importantly will be the first car Newey can have any significant influence on –they’ll be fighting to add their names to the list of champions he’s worked with.

Alonso already has two titles under his belt from his time at Renault in 2005 and 2006, however, he’s had to wait a long time to even fight for another race victory, let alone a championship.

Speaking on the High Performance Podcast about the stars Newey had worked with in the past, he gave a special mention to Nigel Mansell.

Mansell won his only F1 championship in 1992 in a Newey-designed Williams before making the switch to Champ Car where he won the title the following year and narrowly missed out on becoming an Indy 500 winner.

Newey believes that Mansell was misunderstood during his time in Formula 1 when he was regularly racing against some of the greatest racers in the sport’s history.

Mansell had to deal with racing against Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna and his title in 1992 was a well-deserved reward for his hard work.

Adrian Newey says Nigel Mansell was ‘misunderstood’ by people in Formula 1

Asked which drivers he had most enjoyed working with, Newey listed several before discussing Mansell and said: “Nigel Mansell was very misunderstood but I got on so well with Nigel.”

Newey was asked why he was misunderstood and continued: “I think a lot of people did see the whinging Brummie sort of caricature of him.

“And in truth, I know Nigel well enough that hopefully he won’t be insulted if he listens to this podcast and say that there could be occasional elements of truth to that.

“But underneath, what a guy! I mean, first of all, his presence in the car, you could have painted his helmet white and the car white and you’d have known who was driving that car, he just had that sort of ability to throw a car around that, not many drivers had and just tremendous self-confidence and a pleasure to work with.”

Nigel Mansell’s iconic Monaco battles with Ayrton Senna and 1993 Alain Prost prediction

Mansell came close to competing in 200 F1 Grand Prix which during his era of the sport was an impressive feat.

His career started at Lotus and took him to Ferrari and McLaren but it was his 1992 title win at Williams in what proved to be an unstoppable car that stood out.

Teammate Riccardo Patrese only won a single race that year compared to his nine victories, including going on a run of five wins on the bounce at the start of the campaign.

Mansell enjoyed some brilliant battles with Senna in Monte Carlo although there’s a reason why the Brazilian is known as the ‘King of Monaco’.

In a recent interview, Mansell explained how he would have ‘brained’ Prost if he had continued to race in 1993 when he decided to try his hand at racing outside of F1.

Mansell briefly returned in 1994 following the death of Senna, winning the final race of the season in Australia before ending his time in F1 with two outings for McLaren the following year.