TORONTO, Canada – Tuesday, February 20, 2024 – For Immediate Release
The World Car Awards jury panel representing 100+ journalists from 29 countries have voted Adrian Newey, OBE, Red Bull Racing as the 2024 World Car PERSON of the Year.
As Chief Technical Officer of Red Bull Racing, aerodynamicist Adrian Newey is the designer and driving force behind the RB19, the most dominant race car in the history of Formula One.
In 2023, it won 21 of 22 races enabling Red Bull’s sixth and Max Verstappen’s third World Championships and establishing the design concept to be pursued by most of its competitors. After 35 years in Formula 1 and more than 200 victories for cars of his design, Newey is at the absolute peak of his spectacular career.
The Top Five PERSON of the Year finalists were announced last week. Each of the finalists was spotlighted on World Car TV with their own specially dedicated episode in their honour. The four finalists in addition to Adrian Newey above are:
Stephan Durach, Senior Vice President Connected Company Development, BMW Group
Andreas Preuninger, Director GT model line, Porsche AG
C.V. Raman, Chief Technology Officer, Maruti-Suzuki
Lisa Reeves, Head of Interior Design, Volvo Cars
Photos of the winner and finalists can be found on the PERSON of the Year page on the World Car Awards’ web site.
Since 2004, the World Car Awards has been all about celebrating the best of today while embracing the best of tomorrow.
The World Car PERSON of the Year award continues that tradition. The award was created in 2018 to recognize an individual who has made a significant contribution to the global automotive industry during the previous calendar year.
That contribution could include a significant impact to their brand or company, or a significant safety, engineering, design or technical advancement of benefit to the industry or to consumers.
Previous World Car Person of the Year recipients were: SangYup Lee, Executive Vice President, Head of Hyundai and Genesis Global Design Center, Hyundai Motor Company (2023), Luc Donckerwolke, Executive Vice President for Design and Chief Creative Officer, Hyundai Motor Group (2022), Akio Toyoda, President and CEO, Toyota Motor Corporation (2021), Carlos Tavares, CEO of PSA Group (2020), the late Sergio Marchionne, CEO, FCA; Chairman, CNH Industrial; and Chairman and CEO, Ferrari (2019) and Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO, Volvo Car Group (2018).
The World Car Person of the Year award is just one out of seven awards handed out annually by the World Car Awards. The awards were inaugurated in 2003, and officially launched in January 2004, to reflect the reality of the global marketplace, as well as to recognize, reward and inspire excellence, leadership and innovation in a rapidly changing automotive industry. 2024 marks the World Car Awards’ 20th anniversary.
The Road to the World Car Awards is an annual journey that follows 100+ of our international jurors as they test-drive, and vote on, the eligible vehicles for the awards’ season. The jurors’ road-test journey is captured virtually on World Car TV. The jurors provide viewers with reviews and commentary on the awards’ eligible vehicles across six categories, including the prized World Car of the Year award.
The World Car Awards program would not be possible without the support of our official partners: AITASTIC Research & Consult, BREMBO, the Geneva International Motor Show, the NEW YORK International Auto Show, KPMG and Newspress – our official media partner. Thank you to our partners.
