Newey enjoys Silverstone race

Top 10 finish for Adrian Newey, Technical Director for the McLaren F1 Team

On Saturday 8 October Adrian Newey, Technical Director for the McLaren F1 team, qualified in 8th position out of a field of 33, driving the PlayStation 2 backed Ginetta car in the final round of the AVO Ginetta Championship at Silverstone, placing him on the 4th row of the grid for Sunday’s race.

Newey, who is more familiar racing classic cars, commented after his first taste of action in a modern day sports car; “Racing the Ginetta car was an enormous contrast to my GT40, which has twice the power but half the grip."

"By the end of the session I was adapting my driving style well and felt I was getting to grips with the car. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race and have been warned not to get bullied on the track. It will have to be a rapid learning curve.”

Drizzly rain on Sunday morning left a very greasy and slippery surface on many parts of the track. The championship rules for Ginetta state that competitors are only allowed to run wet tyres if conditions for the race are declared wet. This was not the case, so all drivers went out on slicks for the first race of the day.

Newey, racing a sports car for the first time, spun off the track during the warm lap of race one, putting him out the race. The unfortunate combination of tricky conditions and having to drive on cold slick tyres meant a total of three drivers were knocked out during the warm up lap. Newey returned to action in the afternoon when he competed in the non-championship race, starting at the back of the grid of 33 cars.

Eager to prove his worth as a driver, Newey got off to a flying start, weaving in and out of the back markers, climbing up an amazing 21 places to 12th position after just 2 laps. On lap 3 Newey continued his charge, climbing another three places to 9th position. As Newey came out of the chicane at Abbey on lap 6, he was given a nudge from behind to send him spinning off the track, dropping him back to 12th position.

The next 5 laps saw Newey getting in to his groove, recording impressive lap times and overtaking two more cars to bring the PlayStation 2 Ginetta car home across the finish line in a very respectable 10th position.

Newey commented, “The first two laps were amazing. Cars were spinning off and flying across me. There were times when I could have pushed the car harder or take on more cars, but after the first race I wanted to make sure I got a finish under by belt. I just hope PlayStation 2 invite me back next year to drive the car again. I loved it!”

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