I’ll be honest, I am a huge Adrian Newey fan. Always have been and most likely always will be. I ran an Op Ed many moons ago about the dominance of Newey in Formula One and how that dominance has been so comprehensive that I wondered if it could ever be duplicated.
As much as I like Newey, I will also freely admit that, as a Ferrari fan, I made mention of one of the few men to beat Newey at his own game. That would be Rory Byrne. Rory was responsible for the dominance of the Ferrari days (7 titles) and no one could touch his ingenuity and design for a time. With the departure of Schumacher, Todt and Brawn, the team also parted way with Byrne as a full-time F1 car designer but he’s been working as a consultant on differing projects for the Scuderia. Most namely, the new Enzo road car that will be launched at the Geneva auto show.
However, things change in formula One and one of the biggest changes in a number of years with be the 2014 regulation changes with all new chassis requirements, power requirements and engine formats. When Ferrari face such a daunting task, they are in good hands with current technical chief Pat Fry but the stakes are high and as such, the Italian squad have announced they are bringing Rory Byrne back to help with the 2014 car.
That’s huge news to Ferrari fans the world over as Byrne is one of only a few to take the battle to Newey and win. Auto Moto und Sport quoted Byrne as saying that work was progressing full-steam-ahead and that the 2013 F138 was child’s play compared to the 2014 car. this should be a very interesting battle in 2014 and it’s great to see the legend back in the business of challenging Adrian Newey.
