Newey was speaking at Red
Bull’s Milton Keynes factory on an occasion to celebrate Red Bull’s
second successive triumph in the drivers’ and constructors’ world
championships, but the aftermath of Wheldon’s tragic accident cast a shadow.
Christian Horner, the team principal, was similarly affected, remembering
Wheldon as a nine-year-old racing go-karts and describing his loss as an
“absolute tragedy”.
“Daniel was one of the most talented British youngsters at the time of Jenson
Button and Anthony Davidson,” he said.
“He was winning all the championships when they were 12 years old. He chose a
different path, went off to America and became the first British Indy 500
winner since Graham Hill.
“Then he backed it up again this year. Seeing him at Goodwood in the
summer, he was enjoying life.
“The tragedy of Dan Wheldon is a big loss for motorsport in general. IndyCar
will learn from it and Formula One, I am sure, will also look to learn from
it.”
It was a sentiment echoed by Sebastian Vettel, making his first return to Red
Bull’s Tilbrook headquarters since he became a double world champion at this
month’s Japanese Grand Prix.
“In the last couple of years we have had some big crashes and luckily no big
injuries or worse than that,” the German said.
“We should never give up on trying to make racing safer in general. We are
ready to take that into account because we love racing, we love motorsports,
and it is dangerous.”
Vettel insisted, too, that he was happy to acquiesce in Red Bull’s ambition to
end the season with at least one win for team-mate Mark Webber, without a
victory so far this season. But Horner indicated that Red Bull’s thinking
had already turned to ways in which they could sustain their dominance in
2012.
“Teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes are going to be very, very motivated
to go for the titles,” he acknowledged. “We don’t underestimate the
challenge that lies ahead of us.”
While there is a theory that the lack of regulation changes for next season —
enforced by the terms of F1’s Resource Restriction Agreement — could limit
Red Bull’s innovations, Newey suggested he still had scope to work some
traditional magic.
“Technically, of course, it is a shame that we have lost the freedom of the
exhaust positioning, among one or two other restrictions for next year,” he
said. “That is the nature of the beast. We will keep pushing on.”