[herowassenna]

I wouldn't disagree that Newey is arguably the greatest F1 designer of the last 20 odd years.

He was responsible for the March in 1990 which led races with Capelli.

After being fired, he was signed to Williams and in conjunction with Patrick Head designed the Williams between 1991 and 1997.
Now the 1992, 93, 95, 96 and 97 cars were head and shoulders above the opposition.

Upon moving to Mclaren in 1997, he designed the Mclaren from 1998 to 2005, but this time only the 98 was dominant. Mika won in 1999, but i'd argue that without Schumacher breaking his leg, Ferrari would have won the drivers title too.
The 2005 Macca was quicker than the Renault, just very fragile.

I'm aware that it's taken a few years to get the infrastructure right at Red Bull, but we're seeing the effect of that now.

At Williams, between 1991 and 1997 when he left, his cars won 4 WDC and 4 WCC

Between 1998 and 2005, (2007 was his first design for Red Bull, having left Mclaren in Nov 05) his cars won 2 WDC and 1 WCC.

Between 1998 and 2005, Ferrari won 5 WDC and 6 WCC

2009 Red Bull won races but their performance was obscured by that seasons "double diffuser" issue. Ferrari wrote off their campaign, Mclaren took half a season to catch up, but Red Bull was massively quick with just a standard diffuser, and once they had the double fitted, were the dominant team of the 2nd half of the season.

What I'm wondering is, what was it about Mclarens team structure that suppressed Neweys genius? Was Rory Byrne vastly under-rated, or did he need a Schumi in the car to express it properly? Is there any designer out there who can raise their game to his level?

There is no Byrne on the horizon, and no matter how good Hamilton or Alonso are, if they haven't got the tools, they will never be able to challenge a Red Bull...