Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Adrian Newey has donated £10,000 to the fundraising campaign for renowned driver coach Rob Wilson, with Formula 1 figures helping push the total to £162,621 of a £185,000 target as Wilson waits for a life-saving kidney transplant.
Newey’s contribution is one of the largest listed on the GoFundMe page and underlines the depth of support for a coach whose influence in the paddock has long outweighed his public profile. McLaren chief executive Zak Brown has donated £7,500, while Valtteri Bottas and Steve Robertson have each given £5,000. Sergio Perez has contributed £4,298, Karun Chandhok £2,000 and Jonathan Wheatley £950.
The campaign is centered on Wilson’s urgent medical situation. The fundraiser says the 73-year-old New Zealander has been in kidney failure for nearly two years and is awaiting a transplant. A living donor has now come forward, but the page says significant costs still have to be covered, including direct medical expenses, preparation and support around the procedure, and making sure the donor is not financially disadvantaged.
The wording on the page reflects both Wilson’s standing in the sport and the seriousness of the appeal. Organizers describe him as “a living motor racing legend and driver trainer” and add: “This fundraiser will literally save Rob’s life.”
That response from across F1 is rooted in Wilson’s reputation as one of the sport’s most respected driver coaches. He has worked with world champions Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Rosberg, along with grand prix winners Juan Pablo Montoya and David Coulthard. More recently, he has coached current F1 drivers including Bottas, Perez and Lance Stroll.
Wilson is especially known for his work at Bruntingthorpe airfield in the United Kingdom, where he coaches drivers in ordinary road cars using his “flat car” philosophy. The method focuses on keeping the car’s weight evenly distributed across all four wheels, reducing excess load and helping drivers produce faster, more consistent lap times.
That kind of technical influence helps explain why so many senior figures have stepped in. Wilson’s work has shaped drivers at different levels of the sport, often away from the spotlight and outside the grand prix weekend itself. The size of the donations from Newey and other leading names shows how highly he is regarded by people who understand exactly what his coaching has meant.
With the campaign now closing in on its £185,000 goal, the support from Newey and the wider F1 paddock has turned Wilson’s standing behind the scenes into something more tangible: a collective effort to fund the treatment and support needed to get one of the sport’s most trusted driver mentors to transplant.