“I’m the only person who has ever said I don’t want to work with Adrian Newey”

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton both made their admiration clear for Adrian Newey in recent months.

Red Bull’s outgoing chief technology officer will join Aston Martin next year as their managing technical partner and shareholder in a move which has already shaken up Formula 1.

Newey is regarded as F1’s greatest-ever car designer whose presence can significantly boost the team which employs him.

But one racing driver did not see the potential in Newey.

Christian Danner is the ex-F1 driver who regards himself as the only person in motor racing to reject Newey’s help.

In 1982, with Newey also at a very early point of his own career, when Danner turned him away.

“I’m the only person in the world of motor racing who has ever said I don’t want to work with Adrian Newey, which is kind of a rotten privilege,” Danner told Formula Scout.

“But both Adrian and I are still laughing about it.

“A guy [Manfred Cassani] came to me and said: ‘I have a BMW M1 Procar and an F2 team, Christian, why don’t you come to me and I’ll make you a Formula 1 driver?’

“I did five or six races with that M1, one practice in an F2 race on the Nurburgring and one hillclimb race in the F2 car.”

Danner was offered a seat in the March-BMW works team in 1981.

He continued: “Never having any problems with confidence, I knew that I had no idea about driving single-seaters, so they sent me to Goodwood for a test [and] I was quick.

“The trouble was my team-mates were first and the runner-up in the European Formula 3 championship, Corrado Fabi and Thierry Boutsen; they taught me the lesson that driving a single-seater is not all that easy.

“And it took me the 1981 season to get on top of it.”

Newey was working at March. He was Danner’s race engineer for a single race, at Silverstone. Danner retired after running out of fuel.

Danner’s tank was leaking, he later discovered. But he didn’t want his young, inexperienced race engineer Newey.

So, Danner demanded that Newey be replaced by Ralph Bellamy.

“I didn’t want to work with Newey and I told him: ‘Adrian, you’ve got no experience, I’ve got no experience, this is not going to match’,” he explained.

“He was very unconcentrated. He [once] forgot to unplug the radio, and he didn’t know what he was doing on fuel consumption.

“He was just a young designer, you know?

“So, I ended up with Ralph running my car and Adrian ended up with [Johnny] Cecotto. It was Cecotto, myself and [Corrado] Fabi, who eventually won the championship.”

Danner was later on and off the Formula 1 grid for seven seasons. He also raced in IndyCar, and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, among other series.

Newey? He went on to become the most revered F1 car designer of all time who, this year, was arguably the most in-demand individual in the sport.