Red Bull F1 and Max Verstappen face DISASTER after huge exit to rival team

Christian Horner, Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Bahrain, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

Red Bull Racing

Red Bull and Verstappen face DISASTER after huge F1 exit to rival team

Red Bull begin life without Adrian Newey for new F1 season

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Tuesday 31 December 2024 13:02

Max Verstappen and Red Bull may have been able to get over the line with the drivers' world championship in 2024 but they have been dealt a huge warning heading into F1 2025.

Verstappen, in the end, kept nearest title rival Lando Norris at arm's length to claim his fourth world title in a row but it was far from the dominant and comfortable display he and his team were able to produce after strolling to double success in 2023.

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Then, Red Bull won all but one race of the Formula One season with the RB19 designed by Adrian Newey that will go down as one of the best F1 cars of all-time - and certainly one of the most dominant.

However, cracks have already started to appear in the team after a huge downturn in performance during 2024 left them only able to claim third in the world championship, and Verstappen's early season form proved crucial in claiming the title. How will Red Bull cope in 2025? Have your say in our GPFans poll at the bottom of the page.

Adrian Newey has been a Red Bull F1 star since 2006

When will Adrian Newey join Aston Martin?

One of the big questions heading into 2025 regards Red Bull's place among the title challengers. Was 2024 a blip or merely a sign of things to come? If history tells us anything then choppy waters lie ahead for the likes of Christian Horner, Verstappen and even Liam Lawson who makes the step up from the sister team VCARB.

That's not so much as blaming the personnel and their tools at Red Bull these days but more of the loss of Newey ahead of the legendary designer's move to Aston Martin in March 2025.

The 2025 campaign will be the first Red Bull season in years with minimum influence on the car at best from Newey following his 2024 departure, having been with the team since 2006 after its rebrand from the ill-fated Jaguar team a year earlier.

Adrian Newey will start his role at Aston Martin in March 2025

Adrian Newey was crucial to Mika Hakkinen's F1 titles

McLaren and Williams struggled after Newey exit

This though isn't the first time Newey has left an F1 team though, and it didn't favour long term fortune for those outfits.

McLaren for instance have only just recovered from Newey's exit from the team in 2005. It was Newey who had helped them climb back to the top of the tree in 1998 and 1999 with a Mika Hakkinen double in the drivers' championship, with the former title also being paired with a constructors' title too. McLaren have had competitive years since then - including Lewis Hamilton's drivers' title success in 2008.

But it was only in 2024 that they finally ended that 26-year wait for constructors' glory thanks to the talents of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri behind the wheel.

McLaren were one of the lucky ones. It's been even worse for Williams. Newey joined the team at the start of the 1990s and his ideas helped power the Grove team to five constructors' titles in six years up to and including 1997, while also helping Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve to memorable title wins.

McLaren won their first constructors' title in 26 years in 2024

Fernando Alonso, Adrian Newey, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton stand on the podium

Horner hopes Red Bull can avoid Newey exit trend

Although Newey had left Williams by 1997, his fingerprints remained on the FW19 and it meant that aside from Michael Schumacher's Benetton world titles in 1994 and 1995, Newey cars won all the rest of the drivers' titles in the 1990s from 1992 after his 1991 arrival. Red Bull have understandably played down the impact of Newey's exit, insisting that his influence on the more recent cars have been reduced in recent years but the fear remains how they will perform especially after how McLaren and Ferrari breezed past them unexpectedly with ease during 2024.

“We’ll look back with great fondness of the time that he was with us, but life carries on and we’ve got a great team," Horner told Sky Sports last season. "We’ve got great strength and depth. Manchester United didn’t stop winning when Eric Cantona left – everything has to evolve, and I think we have that strength and depth to pick and carry on that baton.”

Verstappen can be forgiven for already having fears over his title chances in 2025 and should the downturn in performances continue then huge problems could manifest for the team heading into 2026 when the goalposts shift again with new rules and regulations while Newey gets his feet under the table at Aston Martin with (an admittedly ageing) Fernando Alonso potentially at the wheel.

Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

View full biography

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Mercedes Lando Norris Adrian Newey