Newey questions if anyone can catch Mercedes

?If you don?t have a good car, you can?t win it (the championship) unless you?re Michael Schumacher; unless you?re Ayrton Senna.

?Lots of guys win in Adrian Newey?s cars ? big deal. Adrian?s the real genius. There?s Schumacher, there?s Senna, there?s Newey,?

It was just one of many memorable quotes from the Formula One legends interview with former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine.

But whilst he often tries to court controversy, not many could argue with these comments.

In modern day Formula One Adrian Newey designed cars have dominated the sport.

Whilst Newey was at Williams the team took the Formula One constructors titles in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997. While driving for Williams Nigel Mansell [1992], Alain Prost [1993], Damon Hill [1996] and Jacques Villeneuve [1997] all took the drivers titles.

In 1998 Newey moved to McLaren and the team won the constructors title whilst Mika Häkkinen took the drivers title.

Then came the switch to Red Bull Racing and with it a four-year domination period of both the constructors and drivers titles between 2010 and 2013, with Sebastian Vettel taking four consecutive titles.

But a new era of Formula One emerged in 2014 with aerodynamic design taking less of a foothold over engine performance.

Many experts in the paddock believe the Red Bull chassis was the best last season, but as was the power of the Mercedes they dominated the season.

Will anything change in 2015? ?Can Renault and Ferrari get to Mercedes? level? It?s going to be a very difficult challenge ? and of course we don?t know where Honda are going to come in,? Newey told Sky Sports.

Newey’s dominant era appears to be coming to a close and the new Red Bull Racing car for 2015 could be the last designed by Newey.

He continued: ?With a slightly weaker engine but a superior chassis you can still win and vice versa, We have a reasonably even balance between engine and chassis ? which, in my view, is how it should be.?

But the 56-year-old, who looks set to switch sports to America?s Cup sailing also pointed towards Williams successful season in 2014 as the indicator towards an engine formula over aerodynamics.

?Clearly, last year was engine-dominated and we saw that with Williams springing forward, Obviously Williams did a very good job but I think what really made the difference for them was the engine.? he concluded.