I recall some time (a year or so) after Newey accepted joining RBR, he was queried about how long things would take and that it appeared the team wasn't making much progress. He said back then I recall, that in fact lots of changes were happened, and that they were almost in place. Mostly he said they related to making productive changes, and to getting things right in the priority of change processes. Things that Jaguar were behind in.
I recall that Newey did not like the management structure at McLaren at times, and that he had looked forward for sometime to going to a smaller team, and building success. Recall that McLaren would often have numerous solutions for a change, and would prototype them and then discard them. I suspected that Newey saw this process as potentially a waste of resources. He said I recall, a key was getting a change right at the earliest. That process ain't easy in racing. One might ask too, how many teams have brought innovation to a track and got it right? Normally change takes some time ... IMO RBR have a good record in doing that, and also I suspect teams are better at it than they used to be. I suspect that RBR's systems have been adopted by other teams over the last few years, due to personnel changes.
So, much of it was management. And no doubt, acceptance that the revised processes and channels of communication, were fully accepted.
No doubt whatever, that Horner was also critical. And I think it was Horner who so much wanted Newey. But Newey had intended to go to Jaguar a few years before, but McLaren changed his work load, promised more time away and other promises, and he stayed a few more years.
I personally doubt RBR would have been as strong without Horner. But Newey played a huge role in the critical processes, and no doubt, his inspiration for the cars. I think Mark Webber's difficulties with his burns and the car being too small for him, was classic Newey!!
Edited by Melbourne Park, 02 November 2016 - 03:29.
