Red Bull can’t force people to stay
Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen has conceded Red Bull couldn’t have been expected to keep all of its key members together amid a string of high-profile departures in recent weeks.
Off the back of designer Adrian Newey announcing his exit in May – and since signing for Aston Martin – Red Bull will also see sporting director Jonathan Wheatley leave for Sauber/Audi and head of strategy Will Courtenay join McLaren in the future.
Their departures come after a tumultuous year for Red Bull off-trac. Tensions behind the scenes at management level first surfaced around pre-season testing in Bahrain, when an investigation against alleged wrongdoing by team boss Christian Horner – a case which has since been dismissed – spilled out into the public domain. Before that, Red Bull had already lost designer Rob Marshall, who is now playing an influential role at its 2024 title rival McLaren.
At the time Verstappen warned against the prospect of losing what he called “pillars” of Red Bull’s success story leaving the squad because of its inner turmoil, especially when his mentor Helmut Marko’s position was called into question.
“I’m also part of this trajectory. I signed until 2028, so it’s very important that certain pillars remain in place,” he explained at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Speaking to Autosport six months later in Singapore, it is clear that that hasn’t happened, with Red Bull now opting to promote from within the fill the voids left by its outgoing staffers. Verstappen’s long-time race engineer GianPiero Lambiase is one member being entrusted with wider responsibilities under its revised management structure.
But Verstappen now acknowledges Red Bull was always going to struggle to keep its world championship winning team together, with rivals aggressively trying to poaching key figures. “Well, we didn’t manage that too well!”, Verstappen laughed, before offering a more measured response.
Jonathan Wheatley, Team Manager, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“As I always said, I would have preferred if everyone had stayed, but in the end you can’t stop people. If you force them to stay when they don’t really want to be here anymore, if they are disappointed or don’t fully get what they want, then maybe it’s better for them to take up a new challenge elsewhere. Even if for the whole team collectively, it would have been better if everything had stayed the way it was.
“It’s always been like that with successful teams, people will start picking them apart. You see that in any sport. And some people get such big offers from other teams that that plays a role as well.”
Other key figures like head of performance engineering Ben Waterhouse and head of aerodynamics Enrico Balbo did extend their contracts earlier this year. Verstappen is therefore confident that Red Bull has the right technical leadership in place to drive the team forward in its post-Newey era, and says he enjoys a strong relationship with technical director Pierre Wache. “It’s very good, Pierre and I talk a lot,” he explained.
“When I’m in the factory, I always have a meeting with him. He’s very motivated and I enjoy being involved. Things are working quite well, it’s just that the results aren’t what we want right now. It’s up to us to turn that around as a team.
“I have faith that people know what they’re doing, they’ve already shown that. Other teams have very good people too, but I don’t think that’s the issue right now. We just took a wrong turn, so it was time to hit the reset button and go in a different direction.
“At the end of the day it’s not just two or three people who make the difference. It’s about the collective. Everyone has to chip in and work well within their role, that’s the most important thing.”
