I don't think WIlliams letting Newey go would have changed much in the long run. I remember an interview with Sir Frank Williams and Ron Dennis, where SFW pointed out that because of his health he couldn't do a job as good as Ron Dennis. Yet he continued on as TP. That was IMO a bigger mistake than letting Newey go.
Not selling out to BMW however was a good thing he did in 20/20, as we've seen what BMW did to Sauber.
SFW mentioned once that MSC was a challenge in the race even if he were racing in a shopping trolley. Of course that was a cheeky comment. It revealed to me something very important. The tech war partially introduced by some of the most successful racers out there spiraled into a giant spending spree for the teams. With Ayrton Senna the bill was 1 mil pounds a year and some engine tweaks of Honda to please him. Then it escalated.
By the time MSC was dominating, spending went through the roof. I don't blame MSC for that however. Sir Frank Williams was very clear when he said that the only thing they could do to beat him at that time was to build a faster car. Would they have been able to do that with Newey? The aero would have been better most likely, but with all the BMW engine troubles, I dunno. Overheating would have been something they would have had to resolve by making compromises.
Yeah, but do not forget the berillium scandal, which imho went quite unnoticed at the time for having such a huge impact
Was gonna mention this too. Yet considering the reasoning behind banning Beryllium that ban was solid IMO. That Illmor failed to adjust the engine was only one thing, after all there were less restrictions one engine development in place at that time.
The MP4-18 was designed by Newey and was one of his weakest designs. He, Mercedes and McLaren were working on a tighter packaging. Rory Byrne and Ferrari were the ones that were pushing that development especially at the rear of the car. The MP4-18 was plagued by overheating issues partially because of Newey rathers tight aero concepts.
So in terms of money Newey cost much, much more than it looks. He designed sometimes cars that tended to be unreliable.
Besides that he definitely is an aero genius and I think over the years at Red Bull they found the right combination of his talents and balanced it out with the right engineers.
Edited by HP, 29 June 2021 - 14:13.