F1: Newey invigorated by 2017 regulations

Red Bull's chief technical office Adrian Newey has been invigorated by the prospect of new aerodynamic regulations in 2017, according to team principal Christian Horner.

Newey has overseen the design of championship-winning cars at Williams, McLaren and more recently Red Bull throughout an extensive career in Formula 1, but fell out of love with sport as a result of the new power unit regulations. With less emphasis on aerodynamics and chassis performance, Newey turned his attentions to other projects within Red Bull Technology as he scaled back his involvement with the F1 team.

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2017 will see the introduction of new aerodynamic regulations which will make cars up to five seconds per lap faster next year, with wider tires also increasing performance. With the new rules seemingly set to play to Red Bull's strengths, Horner says he has seen a change in Newey's motivation.

"I think everybody has got their tail up at the factory," Horner told RACER. "This has been a great season for us; we go into the winter off the back of a competitive campaign, we won two races, we've had 16 or so podiums, pole position on merit in Monte Carlo and some great performances from both of our drivers.

"Adrian obviously became a bit stale with Formula 1, he's splitting his time between our Aston Martin project and Formula 1 and for sure he's feeling more invigorated and enthusiastic. Of course the new regulations pose a challenge to all technical departments. I think we've got a strong group and hopefully they can do a good job."

Focusing specifically on Red Bull's 2017 design, Horner says the cars will also be more attractive than the current generation as well as provide such a step forward in performance.

"It looks great. Obviously we were involved very heavily, it was through the Strategy Group that I tabled the philosophy for this direction. It's great that it has been adopted and I think the cars will look good as a result.

"They're difficult things, targets, because you don't know what anybody else is doing. So whatever you're doing, you try to do it better."