Max Verstappen and Red Bull will begin life without Adrian Newey in 2025 after the designer handed in his resignation. The team confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that Newey would leave in the first quarter of next year.
Many have wondered how Newey’s decision will affect the future of Verstappen. The world champion is under contract until 2028, but that hasn’t put a stop to the rampant speculation.
Max’s father Jos didn’t help matters, from Red Bull’s perspective, with his immediate reaction to the Newey announcement. He told the press that the team was at risk of ‘falling apart’.
Verstappen struck a more diplomatic tone in his media duties on Thursday ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. He said, via formula1.com, that he hasn’t yet considered whether he should leave the team.
Newey had already been at Red Bull for more than a decade when the Dutchman arrived in 2016. He won his first title in the Englishman’s machinery five years later.
In 2023, Verstappen produced the most dominant F1 campaign ever behind the wheel of the RB19, winning 19 out of 22 races. With four victories from the first five Grands Prix, he’s made an ominous start to the current season too.
Max Verstappen on his final message to Adrian Newey
Speaking on The Fast and the Curious Podcast, Verstappen revealed what he told Newey as the 65-year-old considered his future. Contrary to what some might expect, he didn’t implore him to stay.
Instead, he simply told him to follow his heart. And that’s the same advice he’d give to anyone else weighing up a departure from Red Bull.
He said: “I also told him ‘at the end of the day, you have to do what you think is best for yourself and your family, we’re not going to tell you that you have to stay if you don’t want to stay. Live life, if you think you have to go, go’.”
“That’s how I see it with other people also, not only with Adrian. If people don’t want to be here or they want a different challenge, go for it. Whatever makes you happy, that’s what you should do.”
Will Max Verstappen leave Red Bull?
While Christian Horner will no doubt be relieved to hear Verstappen downplay any exit talk, it won’t quash the stories. Indeed, recent reports have suggested that Mercedes are actually accelerating their interest.
Verstappen will apparently receive a ‘world-record’ contract offer from team principal Toto Wolff. Wolff desperately wants him to replace Lewis Hamilton at Brackley.
Crucially for Horner, the 26-year-old is a ‘big believer’ in Pierre Wache, Red Bull’s technical director. Wache is poised to take on a greater role following Newey’s exit.
Newey’s exit itself, then, may not rattle the 58-time race-winner. But it would be a different story if Helmut Marko followed suit, and there are other senior Red Bull figures contemplating resignation.
Verstappen has negotiated a clause into his contract that allows him to leave if Marko goes. And even if the superstar driver remains at the team this year, it could be a different story in 12 months.
There’s some ‘chatter in the paddock’ that he may have the option to depart if he doesn’t like where the team is headed for the first year of the new regulations in 2026. And worryingly, David Croft says there are ‘rumours’ of Red Bull lagging behind in the engine department.
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