Adrian Newey and son Harrison test Ferrari at Hockenheim

Before the Monaco Grand Prix is ​​scheduled for next weekend, Adrian Newey, the star designer of the Red Bull Formula 1 team, skated to Hockenheim. There, the 64-year-old man did not watch others drive his cars, but he tied himself up!

Newey offered a Ferrari 430 GT2 (500 hp) and a classic Lister Cambridge. As you may have heard, the two cars are from his personal collection. The test was organized by kr-motorsports from Switzerland and included, for example, two Maserati MC12s with Michael Bartels, two-time winner of the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring and former FIA GT1 world champion.

For Neweys, the road to Hockenheim was like a journey of father and son, because at the wheel of the two cars, the father Adrian, whose name was stuck on the Ferrari 430 GT2, and the son Harrison, who has already done the DTM and who drove the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Neweys were at the Hockenheimring on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday they both drove in turns; On Thursday afternoon only Harrison was there – perhaps because Adrian had already left for Monaco. The sixth Grand Prix of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship will take place there next weekend.

Harrison Newey: Former teammate of Mick Schumacher

By the way, Harrison Newey is a former teammate of Mick Schumacher. The two drove Formula 4 together, and “Harri now knows Mick very well; he is a good man and gives credit to his parents,” writes Adrian Newey in his book “How to build a car”, published by Pantauro in 2018. (ADVERTISEMENT: Order Newey’s book online now!)

Newey is now divorced (and remarried) from Harrison’s mother, Marigold. However, he always supported his son’s racing career. His joy at being a father was initially small.

In his book, he recalls: “I’m not the kind of guy who falls in love with his baby the moment he sees him for the first time,” admits Newey. “I’m not a ‘baby person’, but when a child grows and develops its own personality, I love it more.”

A costly misunderstanding in karting…

“When Harry said, ‘Dad, I’d like to go karting’ when I was eight, I thought, ‘That’s not a bad idea.’ In all my years of racing, I have seen time and time again that the drivers I have dealt with were not only very intelligent, but also very capable. They knew and knew a great deal.”

Newey Sr. So I agreed, bought a medium and a travel trailer and from then on went to the gym regularly. An investment he could have saved himself: “Years later,” Harrison told him, “at that time, he really only thought about indoor go-karting”.

Meanwhile, the desire for a few laps in the indoor kart has turned into a job. Newey Jr. he has even won two international titles: in 2016/17 he won the MRF Challenge, an Asian racing series somewhere below Formula 3 level, and in 2017/18 he took the title in the LMP2 Asia Le class with Jackie Chan DC Racing – Series of Mans.

But Harrison Newey buried his dream of one day driving a Formula 1 car like Mick Schumacher. In the last two years he has been racing only occasionally and finished his professional career.

With photographic material by Rossbach.