The designer of many championship-winning cars, Adrian Newey, told Auto Motor und Sport about his sources of inspiration…
Adrian Newey: “If I find myself stuck on a problem, I forget about it for a while and the solution comes to me, sometimes in the middle of the night! I used to get up straight away and write down an idea, only to realise in the morning that it wasn't worth it. Now I continue to sleep and tell myself: “If the idea is really good, I will definitely remember it in the morning.”
In case of any difficulties, I switch to some ordinary things – go for a walk, take a shower, drink coffee. And it is there, during a walk or in the shower, that the solution suddenly comes to mind. The work of the subconscious never ceases to amaze me – you are doing something completely different, and the brain continues to think and finds a solution.
On the starting field, I watch what others are doing. Sometimes later I tell the guys: “Look what I saw. Let's try this on our car.” But more often it is much more important to understand why the rivals are developing the car in this direction, what they want to achieve – I am more interested in the goal than the methods of achieving it.”
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