The story of Red Bull‘s dominant RB19 is well told, but the role played by its designer is long overshadowed. Who is the designer that put the Red Bull where they want to be – at the very top? The name is Adrian Newey! Even if you don’t know this man, you’d know his accomplishments. Although his role in Formula 1 is out of the spotlight, he is as big a star as they come. Considered to be one the best engineers, and technical directors in the history of F1, Newey’s cars dominated the racing for decades. And at the moment, it is RedBull RB19 that is dominating, and it has continued to dominate in the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix.

Had Carlos Sainz made it onto the podium, millions of Spanish fans at Barcelona-Catalunya would’ve gone into raptures. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen! But the worst part is, despite starting from P2, the Ferrari’s driver finished the race in P5. Why? If it’s partly because of Ferrari’s strategic errors, it is mainly because of Newey’s genius. After making a pit stop, Sainz is now in P4- behind him Red Bull’s Sergio Perez– radioed his team during Lap 37, asking them to figure out ‘the best way to beat Sergio Perez’. That’s when Ex-F1 driver Martin Brundle destroyed Ferrari on live television with his comments.

Clearly, Perez had a better pace than Ferrari and eventually overtook him. Rubbing salt into Ferrari’s wounds, Martin Brundle responded to Sainz’s radio message after Perez overtook the Ferrari driver, saying, “Hire Adrian Newey,” from the commentary box. He further added: “Christian (Horner, ed.) Is not going to thank me for saying this, but whatever the highest-paid driver is worth, Newey is worth even more,” commending Newey’s brilliance. 

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On the other side of Ferrari, Charles Leclerc’s Spanish weekend was more S-pain-ish.

‘I don’t understand’: Charles Leclerc on Ferrari’s loopholes at Spanish Grand Prix 

After mounting a strong challenge to Verstappen during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc has fallen apart in Ferrari- quite literally. He crashed multiple times, looked underconfident, and produced a bare minimum result after sending a hope of resurgence in Baku. Enter Spain, the Monegasque made a shock early exit from Qualifying on Saturday amidst unclear ‘car complaints’.

After making overnight changes to his car, it resulted in a pit lane start, despite Ferrari having found nothing to be mechanically wrong with his SF-23. While Leclerc had a slightly improved Sunday, he didn’t produce enough pace to make it into the points and finished 11th behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, downbeat Leclerc said, “I don’t understand what we are doing wrong but we are doing something wrong. I went from a first hard (tyre) to a second hard in the last stint, did the same thing and the car is behaving in a completely different way. We have to understand and work but it’s been a few races now where we are struggling with the conditions or having a really peaky car and today is no better,” Leclerc added.

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Having suffered two retirements in the first three races of the season, Leclerc’s scoreless outing in Spain leaves him seventh in the drivers’ standings- 128 points behind championship leader Verstappen.