Amanda Newey, the wife of legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey, has stepped in on social media to deny that her husband ‘disrespected’ Lewis Hamilton with his comments about the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2021.
Newey, who was working for Red Bull during their title-winning campaign in 2021, caught some criticism for his comments about the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP during a recent appearance on the High Performance podcast.
“No. No it didn’t [affect me],” Newey explained when asked about the controversial race. “I think it got to Mercedes. Instead of saying ‘OK, we will accept it and move on’ it started to affect their psyche which is an interesting one.
“That’s from the outside. I could be completely wrong. They couldn’t let it go psychologically. If you have a bad race, perhaps you should have won and the bloody thing broke down on the last lap or whatever. I always had a personal issue.
“I will be horrible to be around any airport on that Sunday evening but come Monday morning I need to wake up and be back on it. I can’t go into the factory all miserable and downbeat. Part of my position I suppose is to help and hopefully motivate everybody not saying it’s ‘so unfair, we were robbed’. It doesn’t help, does it?”
A cohort of Hamilton’s fanbase took issue with Newey’s comparison of the controversial final laps in Abu Dhabi to a car ‘breaking down’ or a ‘bad race’, accusing the 65-year-old of disrespecting the seven-time world champion.
His wife, Amanda, decided to hit back at her husband’s critics. Replying to a fan on the X social media platform, she dismissed these claims, writing back: “No, he didn’t. He has a great deal of respect for Lewis.”
That respect is reciprocated from Hamilton’s side. The 39-year-old made it clear that it would be a dream come true to work with Newey when the Essex-born engineer was being linked with a move to Ferrari earlier this summer.
“I think he would be an amazing addition [to Ferrari],” Hamilton professed earlier this year. “I think they’ve already got a great team, they’re already making huge progress and strides forward… the car is quicker this year. But yeah, it would be a privilege to work with him.”
Instead of joining Ferrari, Newey opted to sign onto Lawrence Stroll’s blossoming Aston Martin project. The deal, which will see the Brit take home a reported £30million per year, was announced in the build-up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
