The internal crisis at Red Bull is becoming increasingly widespread and has had the entire F1 paddock firmly in its grip for weeks. The latest episode in the personnel war was initiated by Adrian Newey’s announced departure. Is he just the first in a series of prominent departures from Red Bull? McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff took another swipe at Christian Horner by recently talking about a large number of candidates who want to move from Red Bull to other Formula 1 teams.
Rush of applications at McLaren and Mercedes? Horner stays cool
One reason for concern is the applications from his employees McLaren and Mercedes should accept, but not for Horner. He’s “not interested in anything more than the slightest thing,” said the Red Bull team boss. “I don’t know where the resumes supposedly come from, but we also get resumes every week.”
“I think it’s inevitable,” said Horner, explaining the personnel changes between the teams. In response to the offensive of his two rivals, he replied: “There are two people who talk a lot. I won’t get involved in a back and forth. But I would concentrate more on Toto’s own problems that he has.”
Mercedes already has a lot of problems on the asphalt, even without political sideshows. The team has suffered from a lack of competitiveness since the start of the season. Instead of being at the top, they are fighting for points in the midfield. You can read about why the car didn’t work optimally in Miami recently in this article:
The Red Bull team boss couldn’t do without taunts and played a little politics: “Of course there will always be movements between the teams. I don’t know how many people we hired from McLaren this year or how many people from VCARB We took on 220 people from Mercedes and 220 from HPP [Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains] to Red Bull Power Trains. So if we’re talking about losing staff, I would be more worried about the 220 than maybe one or two resumes.”
Who follows Adrian Newey?
“I think we are well positioned for the future,” Horner expressed optimism. Nevertheless, the team from Milton Keynes has to deal with rumors that senior employees in particular could turn their backs on the company. The future of sporting director Jonathan Wheatley at Red Bull is also unclear. Like star engineer Newey, he could also look for new tasks in Formula 1 and is currently exploring his contract offers. “There are rumors about everyone. Contracts between individuals, their terms and conditions are not something we talk about publicly,” Horner has so far avoided the claims surrounding Wheatley.
Where does Adrian Newey’s career path continue? Was Red Bull already the last stop? Our editors Florian and Christian discuss this in this video: