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Adrian Newey is a Formula 1 genius, and of this no one has any doubt. His cars have (almost) always been the outright benchmark on the grid, the best possible interpretation of the current regulations and also the pure exaltation of genius and imagination in the service of on-track performance. When he announced that he was leaving Red Bull Racing, all of the Constructors dreamed of having Newey on their staff, not least because new technical regulations will soon arrive in F1 and having Newey on the team at a time of great change might be the key to experiencing a long period of domination.
The race to get Newey involved all the most prestigious teams, and many thought that Ferrari was ultimately the destination for Adrian. However, the engineer made a different decision, and he did so because what Lawrence Stroll promised simply could not be promised by others. The tycoon did not 'just' shower Newey with gold, with a multi-year contract that well-informed people say will earn him around $30 million a year.
It was not only economic offer that played an important role, because there is another unprecedented aspect that convinced Newey and that is the possibility of becoming a partner in Team Aston Martin. A scenario that would have been impossible to achieve at any other team, but one that Stroll was able to secure for the engineer. Why? Simply because unlike all other teams where there are many heads in charge but no one can make decisions in complete autonomy, Stroll is father/owner of the team and can dispose of it in the way he sees fit to win.
A fact that represents a historic moment for all of motorsport, because for the first time an engineer is joining a team while also taking an active role in the company, and what's more, with a dream hire. Until a few years ago it was unthinkable to arrive at such scenarios, for the simple fact that historically only phenomena behind the wheel could dream of such figures and status. Ayrton Senna in 1993 managed to wrest a contract from Ron Dennis that saw him earn $1 million per Grand Prix from McLaren, to be renewed race after race. But Ayrton was Ayrton, and with his incredible talent, in that Williams/Prost 1993 season, he managed to win 5 Grands Prix in a car that was far behind that of his rival Alain. Without that contract, we would not have been able to witness the legendary Donington Grand Prix that season, a true movie masterpiece.
A few years later, it was Michael Schumacher who became the man to bet on, and Ferrari took him on for 1996 with a hufe hiring fee, at the time estimated at about 40 billion (yes, there was still the lira!) a year. And this was not Ferrari's only move, for after the Kaiser, he also welcomed to the team Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn, creators of the Benettons that had given the German two titles in 1994 and 1995. But Byrne and Brawn's hires were nowhere near Schumacher's.
Fast forward through various regulatory revolutions in F1, different powertrains, the advent of hybrids, the advent of Pirelli and the return of ground effect cars. On each occasion Newey has made his mark with his cars, from Hakkinen's McLarens to Vettel's and then Verstappen's Red Bulls. All phenomenal drivers, capable of winning title after title. But putting them in a position to do so was always the engineer, who over the years became a kind of man of providence.
What do these scenarios in Formula 1 have in common with what has happened in MotoGP in recent seasons? Much more than one might imagine, because while in that paddock Newey is unanimously recognized as a kind of engineering messiah, a similar attestation of esteem has been received in MotoGP only by Gigi Dall'Igna, the man who revived Ducati. He did it with his ideas, his determination, and also by training a school of engineers to work alongside him, because we still have to remember that Dall'Igna is at the head of the project, but he is flanked by a great many engineers who develop the solutions that then end up on the Desmosedici in MotoGP and the Panigale in SBK.
Even in MotoGP, however, the wind is changing, perhaps more slowly than in F1, but in any case going in a similar direction. KTM had set its sights on Fabiano Sterlacchini, while Yamaha as of this season has taken Max Bartolini on board. Both historic Dall'Igna men, both chosen to revive projects by focusing on the engineer rather than exclusively on the rider. In Aprilia Romano Albesiano put a highly advanced prototype on the track and it was also with the arrival of Massimo Rivola, former Formula 1, that other engineers arrived at Noale directly from the F1 Circus leading to increasingly daring evolutions from an aerodynamic point of view.
Forgive the eulogy, but it was needed to make it clear how throughout Motorsport the figure of the driver/rider is still important, but perhaps not as fundamental as in the past. The means are more and more evolved, we can see this in both F1 and MotoGP, and often the phenomenon behind the wheel or on the bike, can no longer make the difference as in the past. That is why the figure of the engineer gains in value, showing how much it is now technology and genius that determine victories and defeats, more than the pure talent of the rider.
There is one behemoth in MotoGP that may not yet have fully understood this scenario, and we are talking about Honda. The Japanese manufacturer is the only one that sees a technical organization chart almost exclusively composed of Japanese engineers. It does so because for Honda the sport is preparatory to the development of the production product, in fact many young engineers who go through HRC then end up becoming designers in the field of production motorcycles and scooters. This philosophy has led some of them to even become president of the Japanese giant. However, this mentality is weighing like a boulder on Honda's competitiveness, which undoubtedly could use 'its' Dall'Igna.
Motorsport is constantly evolving, but the feeling is also that in the future drivers/riders are in danger of losing importance in favor of engineers, figures that have always been fundamental but are now beginning to be central to any project. We are not saying this is a bad thing, but it certainly represents a huge change that seems increasingly inevitable.
