F1 ace Adrian Newey would love to do another road car

Red Bull’s Adrian Newey has told TopGear.com that he’d be excited to design and build another road car, now that his work on the Aston Martin Valkyrie is ending.

Speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the F1 ace said that having enjoyed the process of building the track-inspired, 1,160bhp V12-insectoid that is the Valkyrie, he’d love to do another one.

“Another road car? Yes. My father was a huge car enthusiast back in the Sixties. He had a variety of Mini Cooper Ss and Lotus Elans and so forth. I think that enthusiasm he had for road cars clearly rubbed off on me,” Newey said.

“I’ve always been interested in, and enjoyed driving, sports cars. To have the opportunity to be involved in the research and design of one right from the very start has been truly special with Valkyrie. Would I like to do another one? Absolutely.”

It’s not just the specialness of the Valkyrie that has piqued Newey’s interest, either. “I think it’s a very interesting time that we live in, in terms of what is the future direction for the automobile,” he said.

“One answer of course, is it becomes like a horse, where people still ride horses, but they don’t ride them as a means of transport. They ride them for pure enjoyment. I think that then means perhaps tracks for people who want to drive as fast as they can, and strips of road – a bit like an open country road – where people just want to go out and enjoy themselves, will become a future.

“Being involved in that would be exciting,” he added.

When pushed on whether electric vehicles interest Newey, he had this to say. “The whole EV subject feels very much like what we have in motor racing, where the governing body very often, rather than asking ‘this is what we would like to achieve, what is the best way of achieving it’, gives us a set of regulations hoping that we’ll achieve it. And it doesn’t, necessarily.

“I feel quite strongly that’s what has happened particularly in Europe with governments, where clearly it would be pretty irresponsible if you didn’t say, ‘we have to reduce the pollution that the world is putting out at the moment’.

“But I think it’s much less clear whether concentrating solely on EVs is the correct solution or not. In my opinion, almost certainly it’s a mixture of technologies, including hydrogen and the good old fashioned combustion engine.”

He notes all three have their advantages and disadvantages, but a mix and match could result in “the best of both worlds”.

What do you reckon Newey should design next? Answers in the box below…

Pictured: Aston Martin Valkyrie