Adrian Newey's F1 designs have enjoyed a remarkable success rate over the years, but the legendary engineer says he's never witnessed the level of consistency achieved this year by Red Bull.
Newey's creations have won 12 Constructors' Championships and 12 Drivers' championships with three different teams - Williams, McLaren, and Red Bull, a unique feat in Grand Prix racing.
And several of the Briton's designs were ultra-dominant during their reign, such as Williams' 1992 active-suspension FW14B or its championship winning 1996 FW18, but also Red Bull's 2011 RB7 and its 2013 RB9.
But in Newey's view, the sheer performance consistency achieved this year by the bulls' prevailing RB19 entrusted to Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez is at a level that he has never witnessed in his nearly 37-year history in the sport.
"This has been our biggest run of success that I’ve certainly ever experienced," Newey said, speaking on F1's latest Beyond the Grid podcast.
"I’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved in cars that have been dominant in the past, but we’ve never had this level of consistency.
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"People might think it now that everything is kind of guaranteed and it’ll be smooth. The reality is, so many things can go wrong in a race.
"Actually getting two cars to the finish, preferably both of them near the front week after week, it’s a difficult challenge because of all the elements that can go wrong: reliability, accidents, strategy, performance obviously.
"So, to achieve this, I think, is a real tribute to everybody."
©RedBull
Newey built his reputation and indeed his success in motorsport on his innovative approach but also his meticulous attention to detail.
He is also involved in every aspect of the design process, from the initial concept to the final touches. It's a level of involvement that he considers as essential for success in Formula 1, where even the smallest changes can make a big difference in performance.
However, instinct is also one of the main qualities for the man who many say that he can "see air".
"Even with all the tools we have now, there still has to be a degree of gut [feeling]," he explained.
"The reality is, even before the cost cap, we were still resource and people limited. We have never had the capacity to research endless different paths in great detail.
"If you take a recent example, obviously with last year’s car we took an aerodynamic direction with the sidepod and design and the concept of the car, which was almost polar opposite to what Mercedes did.
"Mercedes showed flashes of competitiveness last year. They obviously won in Brazil.
"Then you’re faced with a choice of ‘Do we start to research Mercedes in case we’ve missed something or do we stick with what we’re going?’ Gut feeling was stick with what we’re doing."
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