Adrian Newey, who drove the championship-winning Ferrari at Goodwood, declares the event “very special.”
Adrian Newey said it was “really special” after he got behind the wheel of his old friend Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312T at Goodwood.
Lauda won his World Championship with the 312 and set one of the biggest margins between first and second place in F1 history and even five years after his death, it remains one of the iconic vehicles of the sport’s history.
Adrian Newey reacts to driving Niki Lauda’s 312
Plenty of focus at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year is on Newey but while he has spent a lot of his time speaking about the Red Bull hypercar he designed, on Saturday morning he was able to talk about another car, one he played no part in the designing of.
He climbed aboard Lauda’s 312 to drive up the Goodwood hill and described the moment as “really special”.
“To to be driving Niki’s old car, his Championship-winning car, is so special it really is,” Newey said. “I knew Niki quite well and so to be in here sitting in the same seat and and just trying to think what he must have been experiencing and how he’s prepared himself before the start and everything is really special.”
Newey’s run was one of many made in honour of Lauda and the Red Bull designer said it was a “fitting tribute” to one of F1’s most well-known names.
“It’s absolutely amazing and a very fitting tribute to him,” Newey said. “The cars are so different. I mean, I love these cars. The Lotus 49 from ’67, ’68 was the first car I really sort of started to look at and then by the time we got to this car, then I was 15, I did a painting of it actually for my art project.