How far did Newey’s decision to “step back” at Red Bull coincide with their slump? · RaceFans

Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko is adamant their recent slump in form is not linked to Adrian Newey’s decision to leave the team.

Newey confirmed yesterday he will join Aston Martin next year. He made his decision to step down at the Japanese Grand Prix in April and Red Bull announced his departure ahead of the Miami Grand Prix.

The season was going well for Red Bull at that point. As they arrived in Miami, Max Verstappen had won all bar one of the first five races, and led away from pole position in Australia before being struck by a rare technical fault.

Since then life has got more difficult for the reigning constructors’ champions. McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have all been quicker than them at times and on some occasions, such as the last race at Monza, all three were ahead of them. McLaren have emerged as Red Bull’s strongest opponent and are poised to overtake them for the lead of the constructors’ championship.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Suzuka, 2024 — Red Bull scored a one-two at Suzuka

Last week Marko insisted the timing of Newey’s departure was merely a coincidence. “Of course, there is an opinion among fans that our relapse has something to do with Adrian Newey’s departure,” he said last week. “But that is not true because Newey was no longer involved in all the details of the vehicle development in the spring.”

However, speaking yesterday, Newey indicated he began stepping back from the helm at Red Bull considerably earlier than this. According to Newey, his priority was developing the concept of their solution to the new regulations introduced in 2022, which the team has evolved since then.

It is already known that the extent of Newey’s involvement in Red Bull’s F1 projects has varied in recent years. His input into their cars reduced in the mid-2010s as they found themselves lumbered with uncompetitive Renault power units, but the opportunity to work with Honda from 2019 re-engaged him.

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“It’s well-known that in [2014] with the hybrid engine we were in a position where we didn’t have a very competitive PU and with no light at the end of the tunnel,” said Newey. “So that’s when I felt I needed something else to also be involved in, which became Valkyrie.

“Once we got the Honda PU then it was a very different position so then I got properly back involved on the Formula 1 side with the [RB]14, 15, 16, 16B, and then the 18 and so forth.”

The RB18 was Red Bull’s first design built to meet the revised technical regulations for 2022. Although it was initially overweight, as Red Bull lightened its design the car became increasingly competitive, so much so they won 17 rounds that season and 21 the year after.

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At this point Newey was again beginning to decouple himself from Red Bull’s design team. “It’s now a very mature team so I felt able to, once we got through the peak of the research and design of the ’22 car, the big regulation change car, to step back a little bit. The ’23 and this year’s car are very much evolutions of that first ’22 car.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2022 — The RB18 was seldom beaten in second half of 2022

Red Bull’s problems this year began as they started work on developing the RB20 design. They are far from the only team to have encountered problems with upgrades not working the way they were intended to: Newey’s future team Aston Martin had the same problem and so have Ferrari. Mercedes are still trying to understand the effects of a new floor they introduced at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The intricate floor designs permitted since 2022 have proved exceptionally difficult to master. Newey believes there are some aspects of Red Bull’s car that its rivals still haven’t fully sussed – even after Sergio Perez’s 2023 Monaco shunt gave them a clear view of the RB19’s underside.

But whether or not Red Bull would have found themselves in the trouble they’re in before Newey stepped back is now of secondary importance to them. Their championship chances now rest on whether they can suss where they’ve gone wrong with their current car and how successfully they can address it without Newey at the helm.