Adrian Newey, the British Formula 1 design guru responsible for Red Bull’s much discussed speed edge, has admitted he may consider a role as a designer for a future America’s Cup team.

The spectacle of the America’s Cup this sumer, which caught the public’s imagination for the high performance racing and the comeback story of Oracle Team USA, has clearly had an effect on the British designer who admitted in the Telegraph this morning, Monday 28 October that he was “gripped” by Oracle’s comeback to win the America’s Cup.

Newey’s name has been linked to the America’s Cup for some time now, having previously expressed an interest in the event. However, with the boats going ever faster and the aerofoil packages becoming a significant factor in terms of overal boatspeed, Newey’s fabled ability to look at a design and ‘see the wind moving over it’ would be extremely valuable for any AC team.

Speculation about the Brit making the move to the yachting world was fuelled by Ben Ainslie’s announcement that he would be attempting to put together a British challenge. Although not admitting as much, it would seem Newey has already been approached by a team and it is probably safe to assume this would be Ainslie from his guarded response to the question in the Telegraph. However, it would seem that the change is not necessarily on the cards in the immediate future, as Newey admits to being focussed on his F1 exploits for at least the next year.

Interestingly, with Red Bull sponsoring this year’s Youth America’s Cup it would seem the energy drink company are keen to have a foot in the extreme sailing world of the America’s Cup so it seems possible that a Red Bull backed team with Adrian Newey at the helm of the design team is something we may see in the future, although it is hard to tell exactly when that might be.

Read more in the latest issue Yachts & Yachting – DIGITAL | PRINT

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