Wounded Red Bull’s first outing since Newey news

OBAKENG MELETSE

RED Bull team principal Christian Horner’s “inappropriate behaviour” towards a female employee threatens to stall their recent success, as chief technical engineer Adrian Newey cites that incident as the reason for him leaving after 19 years of service.

With his design team, Newey was behind the dominant machine that has seen Max Verstappen on a rampant run of form in winning three consecutive drivers’ championships.

With just four races completed this season, Verstappen seems right on track to clinch his fourth successive title with the rest of the grid still struggling to close the gap on the 26-year-old.

This weekend’s Miami Grand Prix is up next for Verstappen, and he will hope the off-track issues don’t affect their race or current form.

The departure of the 65-year-old design chief might not impact Red Bull in the near future, but Newey takes with him a huge chunk of experience and technical data that has made the RB16 the car it is today.

The Milton Keynes-based team will be desperate for Newey not to join a rival team, at least not a team that they are in direct competition with.

Red Bull, in the middle of their most dominant era ever, are making headlines on and off the track.

Verstappen’s father Jos said earlier in the season said that while Horner remains in his position, the team runs the risk of things imploding – and it didn’t take long as the search for a new head of design begins.

A Red Bull investigation cleared Horner of any wrongdoing, but with Newey leaving and rumours also suggesting that Max Verstappen could be on his way out, a lot will unfold during the season.

Former world champion Jenson Button has said he does not see Verstappen leaving, but the loss of Newey is what the sport needed with Red Bull’s dominance becoming more evident with every race.

“Whatever he does, he will do at his best. He’s not just along for the ride, and if he’s not happy it’s a shame because they are at such a good place in terms of performance. But for the sport it’s probably a good thing if we saw him somewhere else to give another team the opportunity,” Button said.

“It obviously hurts Red Bull, probably the atmosphere of the team as well, knowing that the major guy in the team that develops this wonderful car that they’ve had year on year wants to leave,” he added.

Formerly with McLaren and Williams, Newey’s move will be the second biggest in the space of a season following Lewis Hamilton’s shock announcement of a move to Ferrari in 2025. Il Cavallino have been on the rise in the past year, since Frederic Vasseur took over ahead of the 2023 season.

Asked if he would welcome the experienced designer to Ferrari, seven-time world champion Hamilton said: “If I was to make a list of people I would want to work with, he would absolutely be at the top.”